The Reason
by shinyumbreon2
Summary: With the Society of Light finally taken care of, Duel Academy can start back up as normal. Meaning that every day is abnormal. And when a new and extremely nervous student enters the scene, abnormal might just be too tame of a word.
1. She Had a Place in His Life

**"What a Fool Believes" by The Doobie Brothers**

* * *

"Heh, well that was lame," Chazz scoffed.

The holographic monsters faded from the field as Houzan, the bratty Obelisk freshman, fell to his knees in disappointment. Normally, this win would let Chazz _finally_ go back to the dorm he was supposed to be in (aka, the one the little punk across from him was in), but first he was beating a third-year Obelisk.

And then that slacker Judai.

…Well, actually, no specific order. Just those two things.

His ambitions, though, didn't stop the other students who were watching to applaud his win, and he even heard a few girls (mainly the freshmen who didn't know better) whisper and giggle about him in that lovey-dovey way.

It was already halfway through the year, how didn't they realize that Chazz only cared for the attention and not the dating part of things?! Ugh, whatever, it wasn't his concern. Not really. Maybe they'd even get the picture as he strolled away from the field without a care for anyone's opinions and praises.

"The Chazz" didn't do romance. Didn't do the dating thing.

Because there were far more important things to than that.

…And yet, he felt kind of…

Empty.

He, of course, never admitted this. Not even to himself, really. But it was times like this - when he was walking through the dank tunnel that led from the field to the main building, knowing that no one would be waiting to _truly_ congratulate him - that Chazz realized he needed…something. He couldn't place a name to it, though.

Friends? Nope, he scoffed at those.

Acquaintances? He had enough of _them_ to last fifty lifetimes full of annoyance.

Love? Ha, and get in the way of him being the best duelist?

(Well, okay, there's Asuka, but he was starting to _finally_ understand she wouldn't come around.)

Fed up with the (not) unusual thoughts, Chazz stomped his black boots down louder and scowled as he picked up the pace to go do homework or rearrange his deck or...something that wasn't this.

Because "The Chazz" didn't do romance.

There was definitely no reason for that.

…

"Oh, why are these directions so confusing?" she whined to herself, staring at the piece of paper intently. She took a small clump of her purple hair, wrapped it around her finger, and stuck the end of it into her mouth absentmindedly. A bad habit, she knew, but it was hard to break. "You'd think for the best dueling school in Japan they would make better directions, but it's like they were written for someone who's been here before. 'Turn left by 1A'? But where's 1A? What even _is _1A? Maybe the front desk could help." She whined in her throat again. "But where's _that_? And how much time would it kill? Wait, how much time do I have now?"

There is both a blessing and a curse to looking at a watch.

"I'm late, I'm late, _I'm late_!" she screeched, tearing down the hallways of a building she knew nothing about. Of course she knew panicking wouldn't help her, she was smart enough to know that. But panicking was yet another bad habit, perhaps her worst one, so all logical thought kind of made an exit stage left most (all) of the time.

As did her awareness of her surroundings.

The unmistakable "Oof!" of another human being - along with both of them colliding with the tile floors - sent her guilt into overdrive. And it just got worse as the guy growled and grumbled, the volume and tone telling her he was already in a bad mood. She was about to brush her thick hair out of her face and apologize profusely, but he beat her to the talking.

"You ever heard of watching where you're going, slacker?"

…No.

Nonononononono.

Not _him_.

On a day already filled to the brim with anxiety and stress and other negative things she _really_ couldn't handle on their own.

And yet, here _he _was, just shy of giving her a heart attack.

She should have known, though, that he was here. _Of course_ he was here. His dream. Duel Academy. It was kind of like a fish in water. And, okay, yeah, she did know. Knew it the entire boat trip over. But she was banking on him dueling, or studying, or whatever else he did _why was he here at __**this moment in time?!**_

"Hey, slacker, answer me!" he demanded, jumping to his feet with a scowl no doubt on his face. She didn't know; the floor was far too interesting. "Have you heard of paying attention? Huh? How about some manners? An apology would be _nice_!"

"…Y-yeah, s-sorry," she stuttered meekly, feeling her voice and even the rest of her body shaking. _Please don't recognize my voice, please don't recognize me at all._ "I-I… I-I'm r-running a little b-bit late to…a-an appointment, a-and I j-just don't know…which w-way to go. I-… I've never been here b-before."

"Is that so?" he sneered, and yet she could tell he was relaxing a bit. Normally she wasn't that keen, but then again this was…_him_. "Fine then, I'll help. Where do you need to go?"

_Okay, okay, you can do this, _she encouraged herself. _Just tell him what room, and have him make the directions more comprehensible. And then you can politely excuse yourself, and never see him again… Maybe. _

"It's… It's the small auditorium," she informed, now a bit more confident from her thoughts. Well, at least confident enough to not stutter every two seconds. Then she held out the paper. "These directions… I don't really understand them."

The paper was snatched from her hand, and after a few seconds he scoffed. "Wow, who wrote this? A toddler?" he insulted. "Basically, just keep going down this hallway. The next left you see, take it, and then it's four doors down on your right." He crumpled up the paper and stuffed it in his pocket. "Now come on, get up. You said you're late, right? So stand up and get going."

"Right," she agreed. _See? Easy. Now just stand and put one foot in front of the other and move as far away from him as possible. _She stood up slowly, her head hung low so he couldn't see her eyes. Though he did take notice of it.

He was always keen on that stuff.

"Your hair too heavy for your neck or something?" he questioned.

"Never really thought of it that way," she mumbled. "Thank you very much for the help. Excuse me." She began walking again, and she would like to say she made it all the way to the auditorium without further interruptions and minimal confusion.

Life was never that simple.

"Hey Chazz!" She flinched at the name but kept walking. "Not a bad duel, for someone like you."

"Whatever," Chazz snorted.

There was only a moment of pause - maybe it had become awkward, or maybe the other guy was about to say more about that duel and got distracted - before he asked, "Who's that? New student?" She kept walking. "Oh wow, rude much?"

She stopped and slightly turned her head, making sure her hair was in front of her eyes. "Sorry, I just need to get going," she said.

"What was that?" another guy jeered, and she flinched again. "Speak up, mousey."

"She's running late," Chazz answered for her, and it was probably the _only_ time she was grateful for his presence. "Just leave her alone."

The two guys snickered. "Since when did you get all chivalrous, Chazz?" the first one taunted.

"Must be all that time hanging out with those Slifer losers," the other added.

"Shut up!" They just laughed.

And they'd probably make fun of her too if she stayed. So she started walking once more, picking up the pace.

Only for them to get in her way.

"And where are you going, mousey?" the second guy chuckled. "We didn't get to hear you before."

"Your voice is probably so tiny and cute," the first one cooed condescendingly. He pinched her cheeks between his thumb and pointer finger to the point of almost bruising. "Just like you. You'd be like a little pet mouse, who squeaks and scurries and looks at us with big scared yellow eyes all the time. Hehe, wouldn't be surprised if a little pet like you ends up in Slifer."

His friend snickered, and she wondered how long they were going to torment her. They were definitely going to make her late, and there was no way she was going to tell the Chancellor it was two of his students that held her up. As if being late wouldn't be bad enough, placing the blame on someone else-

Suddenly, she was violently ripped out of the guy's hold and then was moving at a brisk pace. When she regained her bearings, she realized Chazz had dragged her away and was now leading her down the hallway. And while his steps were resounding, his body strained, and he was probably scowling again…

His grip was gentle.

"Stupid punks," he grunted. "Can't even let a stranger be on her way." Then he glanced back at her.

Her heart leapt; affection or fear… She kind of hoped for the latter.

Because his gray eyes were so _soft_.

"I'll get you there in time," he promised. "And I'll explain everything."

She whined lowly in her throat.

The two made their way to the turn Chazz had mentioned, and once they were there she tried to continue on her own. But before she spoke, Chazz shook his head and picked up the pace. Not long after, they made it to the door of the auditorium. She breathed out in relief and opened it, meeting Chancellor Samejima and-

"_SETO KAIBA?!_" she somehow managed to squeak and screech at the same time.

The brown-haired rich duelist glanced at her before looking at the Chancellor. "I told you she would be jumpy," he stated.

"It's just that she sounded so formal in her letter I could only assume she was that confident in person," the other man replied with a laugh. "Although, I could still be right. Am I not, Ms. Sato?"

"Sato?" Chazz repeated, surprised.

"_Yes!_ Sato! _Maya_ Sato! Th-that's my name!" Maya exclaimed. "Thank you very much for the assistance, Chazz, but I really need to get going! Bye!"

And with that she scurried inside and slammed the door in his face.

"Aw, there was no need to force Chazz out the door, Ms. Sato," Samejima said. Thinking she was about to get scolded, Maya flipped around and opened her mouth, only to find he was smiling. "He's a very nice young man. Well, when he wants to be."

"Enough with the chat, we have important things to discuss," Kaiba brought up.

"Right! Sorry!" Maya shouted, and she practically warped into the chair across from the two men. It actually had Samejima seriously laughing.

"Seto, take it easy on the poor girl," he defended. "This is a pretty big decision for a high schooler."

Kaiba (thankfully) nodded, and Maya found herself relaxing just a tad. "We had actually agreed to look over the tardiness," the owner explained. "Duel Academy can be confusing for first timers, from what I hear. Even then, you are tardy by only a few minutes."

Maya nodded. "Still, I apologize," she said.

"No trouble at all," the Chancellor assured. She nodded again. "Then, shall we get down to business?"

"I agree," Kaiba stated. He pointed to Maya's binder (which she had totally forgotten about in the chaos but was happy to see it and its content were still in her hand). "Now, show me some art."

…

Chazz stood in front of the door, confused.

No, baffled.

_No_, bewildered.

_NO_… Was there something stronger than bewildered?

"Wow, Boss, she really didn't like you!"

Annoyance. Annoyance was stronger.

"Do you _ever_ shut up?!" Chazz hissed at the little yellow slug-looking monster. Ojama Yellow looked at him, ready to speak. "On second thought, don't answer that. I already know."

He began to walk back down the hallway, this time with a set destination: the library. Hopefully a little bit of studying would erase the embarrassment of...whatever that was.

_Awkward, that's what,_ he finally decided.

"Hey, do you know her?" Yellow asked, continuing to pester him (surprise, surprise).

"And why would you think that?" the teen shot back.

"Because no one just hates you for no reason, Boss!" he answered. And, okay, he wasn't entirely _wrong_, but Chazz wasn't about to let that get to Yellow's head and therefore make him even _more _annoying. "Soooo… Come on, come on, come on! Tell me who she is!"

"You _really_ want to know?" The monster spirit eagerly nodded his head. "Fine then. She's _Maya Sato_. That's her name," Chazz sneered. "Unless you weren't listening while you _chatted my ear off!_"

"I'm impressed you didn't yell at me once, Boss," Yellow stated with a grin.

In response, Chazz smashed him against the wall.

"Stupid slug," the duelist grumbled as he stomped off.

Of course, being a card spirit, not seconds later Yellow was back, no worse for wear. "So then, you don't know her?" he questioned.

"_NO_. There, is that a clear answer for you?" Chazz retorted.

Yellow tilted his head, thinking. "She was super jittery, though," he brought up. "Like, really _really_ jittery."

"Probably has major anxiety or something," the teen dismissed.

"But-"

"Oh my God, _I don't know her!_" Chazz shouted, seething. "So can you just _SHUT UP!_"

Chazz then actually _kicked_ the little spirit, sending Yellow right through the wall, screaming all the way. His master, meanwhile, was seeing red and definitely fuming from his ears.

And to top it off…

"Oh boy, there he goes again," someone sighed.

Chazz grimaced. Once again, he was looking like a total dunce screaming at air since only one other guy on campus could see spirits.

"Sometimes I seriously fear for you, Chazz," a girl stated. "Do you just need someone to talk to?"

"What I _need _is to be left alone," Chazz huffed as he stomped away to his _new_ destination: his room.

A third person pouted. "Did people make fun of you just because you're in Slifer again?" he inquired. "You know not to listen to them, right? You did great." His friends agreed.

"Yeah, whatever," the teen brushed off.

And even though he was walking away, yeah, the compliment actually felt good. Made him feel better. Unfortunately, now he wasn't angry. He was upset, sure, but a different kind of upset.

_Maya Sato, _he snorted lightly. _Please, give me a break. _He frowned.

The second half of the semester was about to become _far_ more complicated than the Society of Light could ever hope to be.

…

Kaiba closed the binder. "Well then, I believe we should start figuring out your dorm and schedule," he stated.

Maya, who had _finally_ begun to relax, tensed up with a squeak. "Wh-wh-_what_?!"

Chancellor Samejima laughed. "My dear, of course you've been accepted," he informed. "Your parents and I discussed your enrollment around two weeks ago. Seto and I just wanted to see and hear about your work."

"Um, right." _Duh, you idiot, you came into this meeting __**knowing**_ _you were already enrolled. _She sighed mentally. _Well, at least everyone is going along with my idea of a different name. Makes things easier… I guess._ Maya shifted in her seat. "So, what dorm am I in?"

"Obelisk, naturally," Kaiba responded.

"_Obelisk?!_" she repeated. "B-but that's for the top duelists! I don't belong there!"

The two men raised eyebrows at her. "Ms. Sato, why would that matter?" Samejima asked. "That isn't-"

"But this is _Duel_ Academy," Maya argued. "Yes, I didn't take the duel test; I know my enrollment was based on my art for the Card Design class. But I know if I did I'd end up in Slifer. Because I'm a bad duelist."

Kaiba hummed in thought. "I'm a bit hesitant putting a girl in Slifer, though," he said. "Slifers share dorms, and all Slifers are boys. That's why I want you in Obelisk: you'd have your own room, and therefore privacy."

"But it's not fair that I get into the best dorms just because I'm a girl," she reasoned. _Or my status_, she thought as she mentally frowned. "Please, Mr. Kaiba, there has to be a way to have me in Slifer."

"Well…" Maya and Kaiba looked at Samejima, who was smiling. "I do believe there are just enough boys where they can all room together and leave one dorm completely open. That is, if you're absolutely sure you want to room in Slifer, Ms. Sato."

"There aren't many things I'm sure about, Chancellor," Maya admitted. "So when I say I'm sure, I am."

He nodded with a smile as Kaiba sighed lightly. "Very well," the owner reluctantly agreed. "We'll arrange your dorm by the afternoon, and by the end of the week your personal belongings will be sent to you."

"You'll also be given a Slifer uniform before your first class begins next Monday," the Chancellor continued. "We've never had a female red uniform, but it shouldn't be that much trouble-"

"I'll have all measurements and alterations sent to my mom by tonight, and done by Friday!" Maya exclaimed with confidence.

Fashion and art kind of did that for her.

The two men were surprised by the sudden boost in tenacity before Samejima once again laughed. "Somehow, I can't find a way to say no," he stated.

"Just make sure to follow up on that. Fail to do so, and you'll be stuck with whatever we give you," Kaiba challenged. Then he glared. "And _nothing promiscuous_, understood?"

"I give you my word," Maya promised.

With one last nod from both of them and a quick look at her schedule, the meeting was concluded. Samejima gave her (far more coherent) directions to the Slifer dorms and gave her a friendly send off. Kaiba, meanwhile, simply excused himself and left in the opposite direction of the new student.

Which led to Maya letting out the _biggest_ sigh of relief ever.

God only knows how she didn't accidentally choke on air after such an inhale.

"That just might have been the scariest thing in my life," Maya muttered quietly. "And that list is already long to begin with. Oh, but why do I have this bad feeling it's only going to get _worse_? High school's already demanding enough, but now I'm with other people. And I'm at _Duel Academy_. This was a bad idea, I knew I should have convinced Dad against the idea before he went to Mom about it, especially since _he's_-"

A loud, jolly ringtone cut through her nervous mumbling. And it had her jumping with a slight scream. When she calmed her beating heart enough, she realized it was her phone, and she dug through her jacket pocket to answer the call.

"Hello?"

"_I felt a great disturbance in the Force,_" replied a very familiar voice trying (and horribly failing) to imitate Alec Guinness.

Maya sighed. "Haruaki, you're trying to use an American accent again," she chatsized.

"No, _British_," he emphasized. Maya assumed that he probably said that with a cheeky grin.

Call it a hunch.

"They're both western!" Haruaki simply laughed, and Maya sighed again as she began to walk once more. "Seriously, why did you call? Aren't you busy working on another play?"

"Nothing is more important than knowing how my little sister is on her big day," he answered, no doubt with a big, gleeful, giddy smile on his face.

_Oh. Good, _she thought. _No worrying. He has enough on his plate. _"Good, actually," she reported. "Very good."

"Amazing!" Haruaki congratulated. "I'm so proud! And here I was worried you were having a panic attack."

Silence.

"…You had a panic attack, didn't you?" he asked in a deadpan.

"No!" Maya denied. "I mean, sure, I was nervous, but it's kinda hard _not _to freak out with _Seto Kaiba _in the same room as you." Haruaki hummed. "Hey, don't make that noise, I'm honest!"

"Yeah. Right. Mmm hmm." The purple-haired girl whined. "Come on, Ko-"

"Not so loud!" she hissed.

"…Are you really being _this_ paranoid?"

"Shut up!"

"_And_ you _seriously_ went through with that pseudonym?"

"It's a good idea! …Well, it _was_."

"Explain how you figured out I was right in the end, Sis. _This _should be good."

The student was silent for a moment or two before she said, "_He's _here, Nii-Chan. _Chazz_." Shouldn't there be a hyphen between? Nii-Chan?

A few more seconds passed before Haruaki sighed lightly. "That would certainly cause your plan to fall apart," he noted. "Did you run into him?"

"Yeah, and he knows it's me… I had a panic attack."

"At least it was small, judging from how you were able to have a successful meeting with Seto Kaiba," Haruaki reasoned. "Sis, don't worry about him, okay? He doesn't matter. Just keep your head up, focus, and have fun. You'll make friends this time around, I'm sure of it."

"I hope you're right," Maya sighed.

"'Course I am! Cause you know what they say, life is like-"

"Someone who works in the theater business too much," she interrupted.

Haruaki laughed. "Ah, now if only the whole world could understand how snarky you truly are," he teased. "The face of an angel, the soul of a monster."

Maya felt her face heat up. "You suck."

"Right back at ya, Kirby! See you soon!"

And before she could yell at Haruaki for more of his stupid western referencing ways, he hung up.

"I'm so getting him back when I see him," she grumbled as she shoved her phone back into her pocket. Then she began to make her way to the entrance to the school before she stopped. "Wait, see me soon? So he's flying from New York?" She began to think. "When, I wonder? Guess I'll have to question him later, and… What time was it again?" She pulled out her phone again.

"…_Why was he calling me at five in the morning?!_"


	2. I Can't Tell You How to See Me

**"Beneath the Mask" by Lin Inaizumi**

* * *

The Slifer Red dorms. One could call it more of a large complex of outhouses than actual, livable rooms.

Oh, and there was that one gaudy structure on the side.

Maya blinked once, twice, three times before she shook her head. "That's not important," she told herself. "Chancellor said the dining hall was the second to last door on the far right on the first floor, and that's where everyone will be." She began to walk towards the door, her heart beating. "It's going to be alright. Everyone's going to be nice and friendly, and Haruaki said you would make friends this time. Everything's-"

"SLACKER, GIVE ME BACK MY FOOD!"

A living nightmare, Maya cried with a pale face as she watched Chazz attempt to regain a tray of food from a brown-haired boy.

"Aw, come on, Chazz!" the other Slifer replied with a grin and a mouth full of food. "It's not like you were eating it, and you know what they say: sharing is caring!"

"Oh you'll care about not sharing when I'm done with you!" Chazz threatened.

A few Slifers sighed, but it was all in good nature, which only told Maya this was normal. And she didn't know whether that made things better or worse. "Will you two stop fighting?" an Obelisk girl (Maya couldn't think of a single reason why she was here and not at the Obelisk dining hall) huffed. "I swear you two act like toddlers. That, or ex-boyfriends."

"WHAT?!" Chazz retorted as most of the room snickered and laughed.

"Come on, Chazz, it was a joke," the brown-haired boy eased, not fazed that he had been made fun of, too.

The black-haired Slifer, meanwhile, was most certainly not having it. "You're such an idiot!" he growled before continuing his quest to grab the tray.

"Every night I wonder why I come here instead of eating at Ra," a blue-haired boy piped up. "And every night, I'm reminded that it's the entertainment."

"I'll agree when Sarge and Private give each other a black eye," another Ra (this one ripped with the sleeves on his jacket cut off and a slight American accent) stated, holding his glass of water up like it was beer.

"We should not wish ill of our classmates," a third Ra with black hair countered politely, only for him to smirk a second later. "Though perhaps physical pain will finally settle them down."

A few more laughs went throughout the room before one Slifer boy turned his head towards the door. He eyed Maya curiously as she stood there like a deer in headlights before he announced, "Hey, I think it's that new girl Ms. Hibiki was talking about."

The room immediately fell silent as they all stared. Seconds later, Chazz's eyes widened, and he let go of the brown-haired boy's collar in shock. Which, unfortunately, caused him to collapse onto the floor, the tray of food crashing down a moment later.

"Chazz, come on, man!" the boy whined.

But Chazz was clearly not paying attention to him, and Maya was clearly the reason why. Her heart told her to bolt, her head told her to at least politely excuse herself, and her legs just kept her rooted in place.

So, with no option to really run, she finally gave a shaky smile, raised a shaky hand, and shakily said, "H-h-h-hi, everyone. S-s-s-s-sorry to in…interrupt. M-m-my name's… Maya S-S-Sato."

No one responded, making things kinda (a lot) worse. She began to wonder if maybe Chazz would speak up and start taunting her, but he was more silent than anyone. And with everyone just silent in general, her already wavering smile wavered even more-

"Guys, why are we all so quiet?" the brown-haired Slifer, back on his feet, asked with a grin. "That's no way to welcome a new student!"

There was one more moment of silence before the blue-haired Ra was on his feet, too. "You're right, Bro!" he agreed.

"No soldier left behind!" the buff Ra declared, slamming his hands down on the table as he shot up.

"I concur," the polite Ra agreed as he stood up as well. "A lady should not be left waiting."

"SO WELCOME TO DUEL ACADEMY!" the four of them shouted.

To say Maya was confused was an understatement, but whatever that was suddenly had other Slifers smiling and saying hello. There was no mocking and no snickers, no neglect and no shunning. Even the Obelisk, who Maya had heard were all stuck-up snobs, gave her a warm smile and ushered her inside.

"The food could be better, but there's no reason to pass up a homemade meal," she reasoned as she guided Maya from the door.

"Um, uh… O-okay?"

The blonde smiled and led them both to the table she had been sitting at. As she gave Maya her chair, she glared at Chazz. "Hey Chazz, since you've been a total deer in headlights this entire time, how about you do something nice and grab her a plate, huh?" she ordered.

Chazz was completely frozen, the only signs of life being his head turning while he watched the two girls and blinking occasionally. But after almost a full minute, he seemed to return to reality. "Oh, right," he stated before walking off to the kitchen. He came back a few seconds later with a steaming bowl in hand.

"Wow, Chazz, that's so nice of you!" the brown-haired boy praised with a cheeky grin.

"Shut up, Judai," Chazz grumbled, but it lacked its usual bite. He set the bowl down, and Maya stared at it with sudden piqued interest. "Don't scarf it down; you'll regret it if you think it tastes like it's supposed to."

She just stared at the dish. Stared and stared some more. And then, finally, looked at Chazz. "…Does it at least have karashi?" she questioned.

He didn't seem to grasp the request at first, but once the dots connected, Chazz smirked and quickly ran back to the kitchen. He came back with two small jars and a spice container. "Karashi, wasabi, red peppers," he listed. "Knock yourself out."

Maya eagerly complied, piling the spice onto her katsudon like her life depended on it. She took a bite of the pork - noting that, yes, it indeed wasn't the greatest thing in the world - with a smile on her face. As she went to take another bite, she heard a small gasp of wonder. Stopping mid-bite, Maya looked around to find everyone was staring at her with wide eyes.

Except Chazz.

He just kept smirking.

And Maya kept wishing she'd fade into nothingness.

Before she could try, though, the ripped Ra whooped and hollered. "Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" he exclaimed before grabbing his bowl and giving himself a fair share of the spice. "Y'all thought I was crazy, but I'm tellin' ya, spice makes the world go 'round!"

"If you say so," Judai finally responded, shrugging. "How did you even know she'd want all of the spices though, Chazz?"

It took every bit of willpower Maya had to not flinch in the slightest.

If Chazz was going through the same thing, he didn't show it as he simply said, "Good guess."

Everyone (thankfully) took the answer."Well, whatever you like, it doesn't matter," the blonde girl stated with a smile. "Enjoy the food however you please." Maya tentatively nodded and slowly began to eat again. "My name is Asuka Tenjoin, by the way."

"Oh right! Names!" Judai laughed with a grin that Maya figured was a usual. "Totally forgot! My name's Judai Yuki!"

"And I'm Sho Marufuji!" the blue-haired boy declared. He then specifically smirked at the soldier-like Ra. "I'm Judai's little brother."

"Now listen here, Private," he retorted, once again jumping to his feet with a slam of his hands, "there's only one guy who gets to call Sarge 'big bro', and that's me!"

"I was here first, so it should be me!" Sho argued.

Shame on her for thinking the fight between Chazz and Judai would be the weirdest way to be thrown into a new life of chaos.

Shame on her indeed.

After everyone finally calmed the weird rivalry down, they all introduced themselves: buff Ra was Tyranno Hassleberry (who was actually an American-born Japanese because of his father in the army, which explained his accent); black-haired Ra was Daichi Misawa; the Slifer that had noticed her was Ren Nakamura… So on and so forth. With only about fifteen Slifers in total plus the three Ras and one Obelisk, it didn't take long for everyone to introduce themselves.

Until there was only one.

"Well?" Asuka egged on with a stern glare towards Chazz. "Are you going to introduce yourself?"

For a moment, he said nothing. But then he sighed, "Chazz. Chazz Princeton."

She despised that name, but for multiple reasons she kept the feeling inside herself and simply nodded. "Um, t-thank you…for earlier," she muttered. "I wasn't…as late because of… you."

Suddenly, the room burst into applause, whistles, and congratulations. "Chazz, I'm so proud of you!" Judai exclaimed, hugging the unpleased black-haired Slifer. "You did a good thing all on your own!"

"Then how about I fulfill my jerk quota now," Chazz growled before punching Judai in the shoulder, leading the two into another scuffle.

"Fight, fight, fight, fight!" Hassleberry rallied, and soon Sho and a few Slifers joined in.

"I'm sorry," Maya squeaked as she focused all of her attention on her lap.

"Eh, this was bound to happen, anyway," Asuka assured. Maya wasn't entirely sure that helped.

Eventually, everything died down, and everyone went back to eating. Most of the tables only sat four people, but clearly no one cared since tables had been pushed around or chairs were squished together. It actually made Maya feel like she was a part of a family gathering, and focusing on that (plus katsudon, because there was no better meal than katsudon) made the butterflies in her stomach fade away.

Mostly.

Judai had dragged Chazz over to sit with his friends and Maya, and what made it worse was that the brown-haired boy had his classmate sit right across from her. Meaning his gray eyes were always on her (except not really, but her anxiety just would not shut up). Judai also tried to ask a lot of questions. He was friendly enough, sure, but Maya had a hard time gathering the courage to speak when all eyes were on her. The silence actually had Judai concerned, and more than once he asked if she was okay, to which she would simply nod.

"Just give it a rest, Judai," Asuka told him after his twentieth eager question.

When her statement was met with a confused look, Daichi explained, "Maya does not look very comfortable giving out much information. If she wants time to adjust, we should give her that time."

The brown-haired student gave out a noise of understanding. "But if you were uncomfortable, why didn't you say something?" he asked.

"I… I didn't want to be…rude," Maya replied.

"That's not rude," Judai insisted. "Tell us whatever, okay? We're here for you."

Again, Maya only nodded. "Alright, Judai, that's enough," Asuka stated once more. "Seriously, leave her alone. She'll talk when she wants to."

Judai didn't think twice about listening to the blonde girl's advice and instead began to talk about a simulation duel he had. Sho had been there apparently, since he corrected any mistakes his "big bro" made. Chazz rolled his eyes aplenty and even made a jab or two at the happy-go-lucky Slifer. Hassleberry, on the other hand, was very impressed by Judai's performance (to which Sho argued that he wasn't even there to witness the duel).

"Speaking of duels," Daichi brought up, raising his voice to stop the impending quarrel, "you had an impressive duel today, Chazz."

"This is the third day in a row that dumb brat has dueled me," Chazz huffed. "I'm getting sick of seeing his face."

Maya, who had been quite relaxed, snapped up straight and quickly exclaimed, "I'm sorry if I made your day worse!"

Chazz seemed taken aback by her comment, and the rest of the table was confused. "But Chazz did something nice for you," Judai pointed out. "He doesn't just do that."

"But I ran into him," Maya argued. "And I stuttered like an idiot. And I couldn't stand up for myself, he had to. And I slammed the door in his face. AND maybe-"

"You're too much of a Debby Downer?" Sho cut in.

Her mouth snapped shut, and then she stared at her katsudon. "…I've been told that before," she muttered.

"Come on, Maya, you're all good!" Judai encouraged. Then he slung an arm over Chazz's shoulder. "Tell her, Chazzaroo! She's cool, right?"

Chazz growled a little and shoved Judai off, with the other boy hitting the ground with a grunt. Still, he replied, "It was nothing. Whatever. Don't worry about it." Maya furiously nodded.

The table went back to other topics, mainly about homework and class. Judai and Sho complained the most, Daichi offered his help (Judai groaned at the thought of studying), Hassleberry ranted about how one of the P.E. teachers was apparently unsatisfied with his work ethic (and even Maya had to agree she didn't quite see the teacher's reasoning, judging from Hassleberry's appearance), Chazz snapped at Judai for whining on his arm, and Asuka just calmly sat there and absorbed the madness.

And Judai was not okay with the Obelisk's lack of participation.

"Soooo Asuka," he said with a cheeky grin, "what about that dress- eep!"

He just barely dodged Asuka's heeled boot thrown right at his head, and it almost hit another Slifer behind him.

"Hey Judai, stop making your girl angry with that dance thing!" the other student shouted.

Asuka snorted lightly as she rolled her eyes and blushed slightly but said nothing otherwise. "Sorry!" Judai cried as he straightened himself.

"Dance?" Maya questioned quietly.

"Yeah," Asuka sighed. "So many things have happened within the past year and a half the staff decided to let us have a dance to give us a chance to relax and have fun or something."

"And there's this dress Dr. de Medici really wants her to wear," Sho added. "It's kinda a long story."

"Not sure if I want to know it," Maya mumbled. "But what dress? Can I see it?"

The blonde sighed again but pulled out her phone and went to her photos. "I mean, I like the color," she noted. "I've always liked red… Don't read too far into that." She handed the phone over to Maya. "It's magenta, I think? I don't know, I'm not good with specific shades. It's nice, but everything else-"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

Everyone went completely silent as they stared at Maya, though she wasn't paying attention. All of it was focused on the short ruffled dress. "Wait, what?" Sho finally asked.

"These ruffles? On you? No way no how!" the purple-haired girl exclaimed. She set the phone down as she closed her eyes and concentrated on a mental image of a better dress for Asuka. "With the personality I've seen so far, a sleek dress would be more for you. And longer. Much longer. Probably ankle length… No, definitely. Form-fitting, maybe. And no extras on it; no glitter or belts or anything of the sort. That'd be too flashy."

"Uh, Maya-"

"Those sleeves would have to go, too," Maya continued, ignoring Hassleberry. "In fact, I like the idea of a sleeveless dress. Maybe a strap to tie around your neck… Hmm, well." She tilted her head up to the ceiling in thought. "Actually, sleeves at that short length could work, but only if they didn't have ruffles, either. It all depends on how promiscuous you think no sleeves are, and if that's your taste."

"Maya-"

"Shoes, shoes, what would go well with that kind of dress?" she thought aloud, ignoring Daichi as well. "Sandals! Of course! …No. Nonono, not just sandals. Heeled sandals. Probably slip-ons… Details, details. And they'd have to be silver. Definitely silver. No, wait! Gold… Ugh, no, they're both good! Man, that's hard. Oo, and we have to figure out any accessories and your ha- OW!"

Maya rubbed the spot on her forehead, not entirely sure what was thrown at her. But she at least figured out who had thrown it, judging by Chazz's smirk.

"So, you ramble?" he joked.

At first, Maya didn't understand what he meant. It quickly clicked, though, and she immediately disappeared beneath the table. She pulled her chair as far in as she could before huddling and shaking in between Judai's and Asuka's legs in hopes of disappearing from everyone's view.

"Chazz!" Asuka snapped.

"What?"

"She was finally talking!" the blonde argued. "So what if she was rambling? I for one like that she's so passionate about something."

Wait, Maya thought as she froze. Is Asuka…defending me? She didn't find that weird at all?

There was the sound of wood scraping against wood, and the next thing Maya knew, Judai was under the table with her, smiling brightly. "You know, I get that way about dueling," he told her. "Heck, I dream about dueling. Seriously!"

"As his former/sometimes current roommate, I can tell you that he's not lying," Sho added, joining them. Former… And sometimes current? Maya slowly repeated in her mind. Everything was just so weird at the moment. "You won't find someone who likes dueling more than my big bro. Not even my actual big bro is as passionate." Judai beamed, looking accomplished.

Asuka lightly tapped Maya's back with her foot. "Come on, Maya, it's nothing to be ashamed about," she assured. "We all have something we're passionate about. I'll tell you mine if you come back up."

"Bet ya could guess mine by a country mile, but I'll tell ya if yer right," Hassleberry coaxed.

"I would be willing to share," Daichi said simply.

A few others chimed in with agreement as well. Maya was still unsure, though. Maybe they were all just tricking her, and as soon as she emerged they would start laughing at her. Or maybe-

"Hey, hey Girly," Chazz piped up, tapping her knee. "I can smell your brain going into overdrive. Get out from under the table, I didn't really mean it."

"Okay, now you have to," Judai insisted with a grin. "Chazz never takes back what he says."

"Well we should all know by now Chazz has a soft spot for pretty girls," Sho stated with a cheeky grin. Chazz growled and then began desperately defending himself when the others poked fun at him.

Shoving down her anxiety (and the furious blush thanks to the previous statement), Maya slowly crawled out from under the table. Before she got into her seat, she glanced around the room like a squirrel. Some of the boys who weren't making fun of Chazz noticed her and smiled, which made everyone else stop and turn their attention to her. Chazz was once again the last one, and his irritated expression completely softened by the time he had turned around. And something about it made her feel not only safe and warm and accepted, but…

Nostalgic.

And with that, she finally sat back in her chair.

Thankfully no one made a huge deal about it. Or, at least, they didn't applaud and cheer. Instead, Judai jumped up and exclaimed, "Alright, guys, express your passions!"

Asuka couldn't help a tiny giggle of amusement, which meant Maya couldn't help a tiny smile. "Well actually, I'm super passionate about dueling, too," the blonde said. "I just don't eat and sleep it like Judai does." The brown-haired boy took it as a compliment, judging by the large grin.

"I love machines!" Sho shouted. "My whole deck is based around them! Drillroid and Gyroid, to name two."

"My daddy raised me to be a soldier!" Hassleberry commented. "If I wasn't into duelin' as well, I'd be fightin' along 'side him. But I also love dinos! Now those were some top quality fighters."

"Formulas for me," Daichi commented. "I write them in my notebooks, in my textbooks, even on my cards and walls. There are not many problems in this world that cannot be solved by formulas."

"Yusuke is a huge nerd about old games," one Slifer pointed out with a dry tone yet large smirk. The redhead blushed and scowled while the Slifer next to him snickered. "We can't even fit clothes into our closet because it's filled with Atari and NES and even MSX games."

"Dude, you took up the rest of the space with sports junk, don't put all the blame on me," Yusuke grumbled.

The third boy started guffawing as the first Slifer's smirk changed to a slight scowl. "D- haha don't forget pfft my mystery novels!" he proclaimed.

"Don't remind us," his roommates groaned.

Once again it sort of went around the room after that, with all of the boys describing their greatest passions (besides dueling, one of them brought up). And once again, Chazz was last in line, though he didn't seem as off-put as when he had to introduce himself.

"Dueling, of course," he stated confidently, borderline smugly. There were a lot of eye rolls at that. But not so many when he (surprisingly, and dare they say humbly) continued. "Theater. …Art."

Though there were no comments this time, to say everyone was taken aback was an understatement.

Everyone except Maya.

All these years, and they haven't changed, Maya thought, half-surprised and half-endeared.

"I didn't know you were into all that other stuff, Chazz," Judai noted.

"Well someone around here has to have class, Slacker," Chazz replied, fully smug this time. A few snickers went throughout the room once more, though the black-haired student only responded with a deep frown.

Maya, meanwhile, hid a tiny smile before she talked for the first time since her fashion rant. "I… I like that stuff, too," she said quietly. "On a technical level, though. I like backstage more than acting. And… I mean, I like looking at art. A lot. But I love making art more."

"What kind?" Ren asked.

With all of the attention on her, Maya had a hard time continuing. She even gulped thickly, causing Asuka to almost tell her to stop. "N- …No. It's… okay," Maya stuttered. "I, uh, need to get better at…speaking in front of people, anyway." She breathed deeply to help calm her nerves. "Um, I do a lot of traditional art. Paper and pencil, mostly." Then she looked at her binder (that she had once again forgotten was with her). "Part of my enrollment… It actually involved my work, so I brought it with me to show the Chancellor."

"Can we see?" Judai exclaimed, sparkles in his eyes.

"Judai!" Asuka scolded, to which he immediately threw his hands up in defense.

But Maya shook her head. "Thank you, Ten-" Asuka eyed her sternly, and the purple-haired girl figured out what it meant. "A… Asuka. Thank you, but I can show everyone." And hope no one laughs at me, she thought. Before her anxiety could prevent her from following through, Maya quickly opened the binder and set it on the table.

Judai and Sho were immediately all over it, blocking the other boys and Asuka from getting a good look. Finally, with enough coaxing, the two were pushed back enough to let everyone see.

The best friends kinda spoiled the surprise for everyone, however.

"Is that Dark Magician Girl in casual?!" Sho gasped. That had other Slifers practically shoving each other aside to get an even better look, and Maya sinking her chair a tad.

"Look at Burstinatrix rocking that spy gear!" Judai countered. Asuka got out of her seat to take in the details, and Maya sank further.

"White Night Queen looks very beautiful in that ballroom dress," Asuka commented. "Though for some reason, that monster gives me bad vibes."

When Asuka (unbeknownst to her) got pitying looks from Daichi, Judai, and even Chazz, Maya decided that under the table was once again a great place to be.

"Hey, watcha hidin' for?" Hassleberry questioned, being the one to crawl under the table after her this time. "If Asuka don't like that monster, ain't yer fault. It's still good art."

"Absolutely," the blonde agreed, peeking at the two. "The dress is amazing, Maya, and White Night Queen's pose. You have an amazing eye for this stuff."

Sho plopped onto the floor once again and clapped his hands together as he pleaded, "Can I have a copy of your Dark Magician Girl? Pleeeeeease?"

Maya was taken aback. No one outside her family (plus four) had ever complimented her drawings before, let alone ask for a copy. "Hey, do you take requests?" a Slifer named Masao inquired, ducking his head down. "I'd totally dig art of Celtic Guardian!"

"What about something not human, like Summoned Skull!" Kazuma (Mystery Novel guy) cheered.

"That's still humanoid, idiot," his roommates huffed.

"Then go with Dark Tyranno!" Hassleberry offered. "Whooee, that'd be somethin' different!"

"Hold on, hold on!" Maya - blushing fiercely at this point - interjected, getting out from under the table. Everyone stopped talking about which monster they'd want drawn and looked at her. And even though eyes were on her, Maya fought through the nervousness and didn't even stutter as she explained. "I don't draw random monsters. Not really, anyway. I use monsters as models for my clothing designs. I want to be a fashion designer, not a monster designer."

Some of the Slifers grew disappointed, but the rest didn't falter in their excitement, especially Judai. "That's still really cool!" he complimented.

"You… You don't find it weird…that I use monsters to model human clothing?"

"Um, hello, have you seen your own work?" Judai picked up the Burstinatrix drawing and showed it to her enthusiastically. "Weird or not, look at how awesome Burstinatrix is! People can say you should use people, but who cares when she's like-" he put the paper down and then copied the FIRE monster's pose, "'Got my spy on'. You know?"

"…No?"

"Ugh, just let the Slacker be right for once!" Chazz cried, surprising everyone. Maya hadn't even really noticed him; he had been unusually quiet. "They're good, okay? Great, amazing, whatever. Just… Tch, never mind."

Everyone was silenced by his compliments (especially Maya) before Judai spoke up; it was quite clear he was the instigator. "So, does that mean you want to work at Industrial Illusions?" he asked.

"Bro, she said she wants to be a fashion designer," Sho reminded. "So she probably wants to make costumes for pro duelists."

Judai made a noise of understanding that quickly melted into confusion when Maya shook her head. "I just want to make clothes," she stated. "Honestly, I don't want to do much with dueling. Not that I hate dueling; I have a deck, actually. But I don't want a job dealing with dueling."

"Then - no offense, Private - why are ya here at Duel Academy?" Hassleberry questioned.

"U-um, well-" The Ra tried to interrupt, but Maya kept going. "Mr. Kaiba and the whole school board decided to begin a new program, and I'm the guinea pig of sorts."

"What's the program?" Sho inquired.

"Apparently there was this group called the Society of Light- I-I'm sorry please don't be angry-" Asuka put a hand on Maya's shoulder while everyone else relaxed. Eventually, the purple-haired girl exhaled lightly and continued. "A- …Anyway, after them, most parents tried to pull their kids out of Duel Academy, and as a consequence shut it down. Obviously that didn't work - since you're all here - but then parents noticed there weren't any core classes. Well, no serious ones, at least."

The whole room fell silent as they tried to piece things together. Daichi was the one to figure it out first. "So then, they want to add core classes to our curriculum along with dueling classes?" he realized. A collective confused and distressed gasp rang throughout the room.

"By next Monday every student here is going to have at least one core class," Maya answered.

Judai was (surprise, surprise) the first and most vocal whiner. "I graduated middle school to get away from all of that!" he cried into Chazz's shoulder.

"Like you pay attention to duel classes anyway," Chazz grumbled. "And get off me, Slacker, I'm not a walking tissue!"

"He's not entirely wrong, though. This sucks," Ren sighed.

"Well, I mean, I've kinda missed Social Studies," Kazuma admitted with a grin. "It would be cool to get back into that."

His statement had others thinking too, and some of them began to talk about how it would be nice to take Math or Japanese or even some Science that didn't involve Daitokuji (whoever that was). "What about you, Maya?" Sho brought up. "You said you were the guinea pig. What does that mean, exactly?"

"I'm taking all of them." Another baffled cry was released, and Maya blushed before looking at her feet. "Y-yeah, all of them. Math, Science, Social Studies, Japanese, and English, along with two dueling classes; I chose Basics and Card Design. Basically the point of my trial run is to see if students who duel more as a hobby than a profession would still work in Duel Academy." She shuffled her feet and added in a mousey tone, "They're probably also using me just to get parents off their back."

"Joke's on them, 'cause now ya get to meet us and play Duel Monsters!" Hassleberry commented.

"Along with furthering your general education," Daichi added practically, with a few students muttering how he was no fun under their breath.

"I… I guess," Maya agreed. "This is just a lot to take in, because - along with not being a very good duelist - I've been homeschooled for the past few years. Which means I haven't been around this many people for a while."

"No wonder you're so nervous, then," Asuka figured. Maya nodded slowly. "Sorry to overwhelm you."

Maya raised her eyes and studied everyone in the room. She noticed that they all seemed to be in agreement, and maybe she shouldn't have been surprised since they had been demonstrating their kindness the whole time, but she was still caught off guard. Then she eyed Chazz, and when she realized he seemed just as sympathetic if not more so, her head shot up and she shook her head.

"Um, well, to be honest, it hasn't been as bad as I thought," she admitted. "I was, uh, expecting…worse."

"How so?" Judai asked. When Maya began nervously twitching and shifting her eyes everywhere, the brown-haired teen assured her that she didn't have to answer. "Anyway, when do we have to sign up for the classes?"

"I'm not sure," the girl replied. "I don't think the other houses have been officially informed yet."

"If I had to guess," Daichi stated, "Obelisk and Ra will be informed before Slifer, and therefore given choices before Slifer."

A few Slifers complained about that fact, especially Chazz. "Stupid slacker dorms," he grumbled.

"Gives me time to think about it," Judai brought up. Chazz rolled his eyes, and Maya had to hide another smile. "Anyway, can we get back to eating? I don't want to talk about classes anymore."

"Ugh, why are you such an idiot?!" the black-haired Slifer growled. The room erupted in laughter, and Maya really had to hide a smile and even a giggle.

It didn't work.

…

There weren't many dinners Maya could remember where right after she wanted to drop onto her bed with a smile so wide it hurt her cheeks. But this was definitely one she would remember for that very reason. Because despite saying he wanted to eat, Judai began to spin tales of wacky adventures and shenanigans that had happened over the past year and a half, deliberately ignoring anything that would badly shift the mood.

Everyone was laughing and talking over each other, and poor Chazz was getting teased and badgered at every turn. It was surprising on two fronts for Maya: one, it was so opposite of what she knew that it somehow flipped into being perfectly normal, and two...

He seemed to kind of…enjoy it.

Maybe Maya was just projecting as she desperately tried to curb the anxiety screaming in her head that something would go wrong. But she swore up and down that Chazz - despite all of his protests and shouting and moping about - was having fun.

And it just…made her heart melt.

But there was the past. The knowledge of who he had been and what he had done nagged at her, nibbled at her brain like a persistent fly. It followed her all the way to the sink to dispose of her dirty dishes, all the way to the door with her number on it, and all the way into bed that she flopped onto with a satisfied sigh and a smile.

Because no one can change that drastically that quickly, the little voice in her head reasoned. And especially not Chazz Princeton.

At the thought of his full name, Maya did have to frown. Chazz Princeton, she repeated. She stared at the ceiling above her, mulling over the black-haired student. Why, though? Why… Maya shook her head. No. No thinking about anything tonight. You had a good night. A great one, even. Just close your eyes, and think about other things tomorrow.

Maya closed her eyes, and let herself fall into a dreamless sleep for the first time in years.


	3. Take Your Past, Shut Your Eyes

**"Shut Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol**

* * *

"Gooo_oood morning Boss_\- AH!"

Generic blaring alarms were less annoying than Ojama Yellow, and that was a fact.

"How many times do I have to tell you _not _to wake me up!" Chazz shouted, scowling towards the direction he had flung the spirit.

"But Boss, today's the day you show that new girl around!" Yellow replied excitedly, darting around the room with more energy than anyone - spirit or otherwise - should have so early in the morning.

"Yeah, I know," Chazz said dully. Then he grabbed his phone and checked the time, which he then proceeded to shove in Yellow's overeager face. "Except that I don't have to be up _for another __**hour!**_"

Yellow screamed at the change in tone and flew off, and the black-haired duelist groaned and ran his hand down his face. Knowing that he wouldn't fall back asleep, Chazz decided to get out of bed. He figured that he could do some homework, anyway, so maybe this wasn't all that bad.

Of course, Chazz wasn't going to say that to Yellow, no sir.

As he shrugged on his trenchcoat, Chazz's stomach began to grumble, and he huffed. _So much for homework, _he thought with distaste. But at the same time, he couldn't be too mad; while Slifer food was still not particularly _good_ food, Ms. Hibiki made it serviceable. Any food was better than Daitokuji's cooking. So with the dorm key in his pocket and his deck in the holder on his belt, he made his way to the kitchen.

Only to find a sight that had him somehow simultaneously frozen in admiration and pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance:

Maya washing dishes.

Admiration, because with all of the food Judai ate, there had to be at least 20 from him alone. Not to mention all of the pots and pans Ms. Hibiki used to cook all of the different dishes since she had the sense of knowing people had different tastes.

Annoyance, because…

"Let me guess," Chazz groaned. Maya screamed and jumped, almost dropping one of the plates. "You felt like you owed her something?"

Maya's head turned around like the hands of a clock, her yellow eyes wide. "…She has papers to grade," she finally answered quietly, still somehow scrubbing the dishes.

"Until Deck Composition this afternoon, Ms. Hibiki won't have anything to do once she's done with those papers," the black-haired teen countered as he walked to the sink. Then he placed his hand on top of her head, which acted as a stop button for her fierce scrubbing. "Besides, she's used to it. Judai eats like this every hour of every day."

"But that's why I should help!" Maya whined.

"This is part of her _job_, dummy," he told her with a huff. "Seriously, what is with you and taking people's jobs, Koharu?"

A hand that tasted too much like soap slapped over his mouth. He took his hand off of her head to rip hers off. As he tried to wipe away the taste with his free hand, the purple-haired girl squeaked, "What if someone hears you?!"

"Everyone's in class," Chazz retorted. "And I'm not using that stupid alias."

Koharu - yes, Koharu, that was her _actual _name - pouted. "Don't call my name stupid," she muttered.

"Yeah, sure," Chazz replied half-heartedly. "How long did it take you, three minutes?"

"No!" There was a pause before Koharu turned back to the sink. "…Five." Chazz snorted, and Koharu whipped her head around. "It doesn't matter! Chazz, just don't go saying my name everywhere!" she pleaded.

"When did you start hating your name?" the black-haired teen questioned.

"I don't _hate_ my name," Koharu replied. "It just...causes problems. You know that." When all she got was an eye roll, she tried rephrasing her words. "Okay, not _problems _problems, but…" Her hands waved in the air as she tried to think of the right word. "Expectations. And then my anxiety shoots through the roof."

"You mean it demolishes what little of the roof was left."

"Chazz!"

"Okay, okay, I'll call you Maya," Chazz agreed. "But not always. It's weird."

Koharu sighed quietly and went to dry her hands. "I…suppose it is weird," she stated. "I, uh, tried to make it sound American… I'm not as good at that as you are."

He was pretty good at putting a convincing American name together. Perhaps a little _too_ good.

Clearing his throat, Chazz decided to change the subject. "Anyway, go get dressed into something that's not your pajamas with a jacket thrown over," he instructed. "I'm taking you on a tour of the school. And before you freak out - because you would have - Ms. Hibiki told me last night that I would be doing this today. Besides," he puffed out his chest and smirked, "I do have the best grades, so it's not like it's a big deal."

There was a soft giggle, and he glanced at Koharu to find her usual tiny, shy smile. "Of course you do," she replied, a hint of awe in her statement. Then, without another word, she walked out of the kitchen.

Chazz stared after her and sighed, glad that she had listened to him. Koharu was a true definition of a people pleaser, but when she was stubborn, she was _stubborn_. "Boooooooss, why would you lie to meeeeeeee?" Yellow suddenly whined, making the duelist jump.

"Screw you, Slug!" Chazz insulted as he pitched Yellow through the nearest wall. "If you're going to ask me stupid questions, how about _not_ sounding like a toddler!"

Yellow poked his head out of the wall, and that's when Chazz noticed the concerned yet curious look on his face. Then he floated back over and tried again at a much more reasonable volume. "You said that you didn't know her," he pointed out. "But you said things about her always doing people's jobs, and you even knew her real name. So that means you know her."

Realizing there was no way Yellow was going to stop bugging him for answers, Chazz decided to confess. "Fine, okay, whatever," he huffed. "Yeah, I know her. She's a childhood friend."

"You had _friends_?!"

For that, Chazz smacked him down and then stomped him into the floor.

"_Yes_, I had friends," he hissed as he stormed over to the fridge. "But Koharu and I fell out of contact a few years back so that's probably why she's so jumpy. I wouldn't be surprised if she actually-"

As he opened the fridge to get breakfast, he saw that one had been prepared: a bowl of rice with fried shrimp and scrambled eggs, garnished with dried seaweed on top. Next to it was a note, and he didn't even need to see who signed it to know it was Koharu's, judging by the neat, tiny handwriting.

_Ms. Hibiki says you never eat much in the mornings,_ it read. _So please eat up. I tried to make it like Akamaro-san does, but I'm still not that good, and the fried shrimp isn't fresh. Neither is the dried seaweed, now that I think about it. Plus, you have to microwave it. _Chazz - as he put the bowl into the microwave - could seriously imagine Koharu stumbling through her words if she were saying this to him in person. _Anyway, I hope you like it. Even though it probably isn't all that great. _

The note was then signed very sloppily, with her real name scribbled out and her alias squished onto the little room she had left on the page. It was so amazing at how little she had changed over the years that all Chazz could do was let out an amused chuckle, imagining her whipping her head around and hoping no one was in the room while she made the mistake.

"She actually what?" the spirit monster asked as the microwave beeped.

"Hates me," Chazz answered, careful to not burn himself. "And I can tell she kind of does, but clearly she doesn't as well. Even when we were friends sometimes I had no idea how her brain worked."

Yellow, for once, was silent as the black-haired teen ate his breakfast. Some of the rice was fine, but most of it was either too mushy or too hard. The fried shrimp was clearly the frozen kind - since it was soggy - and most of the eggs were a tad rubbery. The only ingredient where there wasn't a true complaint was the dried seaweed, and even then it was only average. And yet, despite all of that, Chazz found himself enjoying every bite. Truth be told, this was the first breakfast he had in weeks, maybe even months, that wasn't just toast or cereal or a protein bar. So a breakfast that had actual time and effort was something he could at least appreciate.

"Is it good?" Yellow questioned.

Chazz took another bite. "Nope," he stated.

The spirit tilted his whole body in confusion. "Then why do you keep eating it?"

"Because she took the time to make it." Yellow made a noise of awe. Then he floated over to Chazz's chopsticks and took the bite for himself. "Hey! This is _my _breakfast!" Chazz snapped.

But the spirit wasn't listening; in fact, he looked absolutely full of glee. "What are you talking about, Boss?" he giggled as he floated around with bliss. "It's great! 'Cause it's made with love!"

That had Chazz blushing so hard he felt like his face would combust. Not caring that there was still a little bit left, he abruptly stood up and stomped towards the door with the intent on grabbing Koharu so they could get this tour started. Sure, he had absolutely no idea which dorm was hers, but he could find it…eventually.

All of that was made moot, though, when he flung the door open to find Koharu on the other side.

And that _really_ had Chazz blushing.

Koharu was always a good dresser; came with the territory of wanting to work in the fashion industry. But why did she have to be _this __**cute**_?! A dark-and-light blue plaid shawl with a baby blue shirt underneath, a plaid skirt that matched her shawl, baby blue calf-length leggings, and white sandals.

_God, it's too much! _Chazz thought with his mouth gaping.

Two taps on his nose snapped him out his gawking. After he blinked a few times, he saw Koharu blushing furiously while she gripped her finger like it was a disobedient child. She sheepishly glanced at him and then began to wring her hands together. A nervous habit alongside twenty more.

"Um… Are we going to go?" she asked quietly.

Blinking one more time, Chazz finally shook his head of the fuzz and replied, "Yeah, let's get moving." There was a pause on Koharu's part before she moved quickly to catch up.

At first, as they walked, it was quiet. Chazz was trying to figure out where he would start with the tour, and Koharu was no doubt a bundle of nerves. Yellow tried to pester him the entire hike about what they were doing and where they were going and why Chazz wasn't talking to the girl behind him. Eventually, fed up with the spirit's constant chattering, he swatted him away like an annoying fly.

Extremely redundant, he knew, but whatever.

"Are there a lot of flies around here?" Koharu inquired.

Glad that he handled Yellow in a more realistic, non-embarrassing way this time, Chazz turned his head towards her. "Not really," he answered, "but they're around enough to be a nuisance." Then he smirked. "Why, do they scare you, rich girl?"

Koharu pouted. "No," she stated. "I was just curious. And you don't have to point out I'm rich. You are too, so how come you aren't scared?"

"Please. Me, scared of bugs? At least I'm not a nervous wreck."

Never mind the fact that he had flinched on _multiple _occasions when he saw roaches in his old Slifer room.

"R… Right," the girl agreed, frowning.

Something nagged at the back of Chazz's mind to either apologize or tell her he was teasing, but he simply shrugged and continued forward. "We're going to the hot springs first," he announced, finally deciding on where to start.

"There are hot springs?" Koharu asked, intrigued.

_Hmm, still likes hot springs, I see. _"Yeah. It's in a big dome away from the main building, so I figure we should start there so we don't have to leave school until we're done," Chazz explained.

Koharu made a noise of understanding. "Are they natural?"

"No."

"Oh."

And just like that, all of her intrigue was gone. Chazz huffed. "Spoiled brat. Not every hot spring you run into is going to be natural."

"I'm not a brat," Koharu argued. "And I know that. But you'd think a volcano island run by one of _the_ richest men in the world would have a natural hot spring." She did have a point. "Oo, speaking of hot springs, my parents took Haruaki and I to Costa Rica two summers ago. The resort we were staying at was only half an hour away from the most amazing natural hot springs." She let out a sigh of fondness. "Not only did they feel absolutely refreshing, but it was surrounded by the most beautiful scenery ever. If I were a landscape artist I would have totally drawn a hundred copies of that forest."

Chazz hummed but said nothing else. He did envy her a little, though, considering that he was _supposed_ to go on that trip. Her parents had talked about it often when he was Koharu's friend, but they just never had the free time.

Apparently, they finally found that time.

It took about a half hour to reach the hot springs, and the tour didn't last nearly long enough to compensate. In fact, they didn't even go inside. Koharu took one long look at the dome and commented that she would check it out later. He supposed she had a point, since they couldn't really have a way to enjoy the waters.

So they made their way to school (taking only around fifteen minutes this time), and along the way Chazz pointed out the gym building. The purple-haired girl didn't seem interested in any of the physical activities he listed, until he mentioned tennis.

"Tennis?" Koharu repeated, and suddenly the normally-nervous girl was surrounded with a fiery, determined aura.

"AH! Boss, she's suddenly super scary!" Yellow cried.

_Because if there are four things Koharu's confident about in this world, it's art, fashion, Poker, and tennis,_ Chazz sighed.

When they entered the school, Chazz began to explain the four duel fields. "Each dorm has their own practice field," he told her. "It's probably the only nice thing Slifers get. Though, they are separated from the other two. And the stadium is smaller than the others. Whatever. It's in the east wing, while the other two are in the west wing. Then there's the main field in the center, right through these doors."

"For big events?" Koharu guessed.

Chazz nodded. "But you and I know you don't really care, so let's move on," he said, walking towards the west. He figured starting there and walking in a circle would be the best. "The classrooms are in between each field, and there are three floors. A classrooms are on the first floor, B classrooms are the second, and C on the third. There isn't any real rhyme or reason to which class goes in which room, except maybe class size."

"What about a library?"

"First floor, not too far from the main field. It's on the east side, so we'll loop back around to it."

"Why can't we just go to the library?"

"Nerd," Chazz chuckled.

There was no doubt Koharu was pouting again. "You like the library, too," she pointed out. "Besides, if all of these rooms are classrooms, wouldn't it be easy for me to find?"

Chazz simply shrugged. "My tour, my rules," he replied. Koharu whined in disappointment.

They continued through the school, and about halfway through the west wing, Chazz pointed up and informed Koharu that all of the staff offices were on the third floor directly above their position. The girl noted that was most likely where she would have to pick up her uniform and her final schedule.

"Though now I'm wondering why our meeting wasn't up there," she mumbled. Chazz chose not to answer.

Eventually, they looped back around to the entrance, with the black-haired student noting the door to the Slifer practice field. "And four doors down is the library," he added. "Not a whole lot of people go in there. Usually some Ras and a few Obelisks. Other than that, you'll be mostly alone." Right before Koharu shot past him to get herself lost in reading, Chazz gripped the thick collar of her shawl. "Nope, that's not happening."

"Chazz, it's not like there's anything else to see!" Koharu complained. "Come on, at least let me check out a book!"

"Do you have your ID to _do_ that?" Chazz responded.

"…No," she answered meekly. "But I can try."

"You'll miss lunch if I let you in there."

"I won't, I promise!"

"And how many times have I heard that before?"

"_Chazz, please_?"

"HEEEEEEEEEY!"

_Oh, good,_ Chazz thought with annoyance. _A distraction more bothersome than Yellow. Great._

Seconds later, Judai came tearing around the east wing corner with a giant grin, followed closely by Sho. "Maya, it's great to see you!" he happily greeted as he approached the two. "Heard you whining down the hall. Is Chazzaroo not being a good host?"

"Shut up, Slacker," Chazz grumbled, letting go of Koharu's shawl.

"No, he has been," Koharu said while she fluffed out the article of clothing. "I've seen just about all of campus at this point."

"Wow, that was fast!" Judai exclaimed.

"Two hours is _not_ quick," Chazz retorted.

Sho finally caught up at that point, taking in huge gulps of air before saying, "Have you seen the dueling fields yet?"

"He showed me the doors _to_ the fields," Koharu answered.

"Let's go explore, then!" Judai decided with enthusiasm.

Koharu tilted her head. "Why? Is there a duel going on?" she questioned.

"Nah," the brown-haired duelist stated. "But don't you wanna see them?" Suddenly, an idea seemed to pop into his usually-idealess head. "Or maybe we can duel, Maya!"

And once again, when Judai _had_ an idea, it never went well.

"W-w-w-w-w-_what?!_" Koharu squeaked. Chazz sighed internally; she had been doing surprisingly well for the entire tour, and Judai had to go and screw it up.

"Yeah, a duel between you and me!" Judai replied. "Come on, Maya, it'll be fun!"

Koharu _furiously_ shook her head. "No! I'm _terrible_ at dueling!" she countered. "There's a reason I'm in Slifer, and that's why. I can count the number of wins I've had on one hand. Judai, it won't be a good duel, not at all."

"Trust me, it'll be good," the eager boy insisted.

"I… I-I don't have my deck on me," Koharu told him.

"Where is it?" Sho asked. "In your dorm room?"

"Um… I-it's back at…h-home."

Too bad that Koharu was about as good at lying as she was dueling.

"It is, isn't it?" Chazz figured. Koharu whipped her head towards him, yellow eyes wide with fear. "Maya," _God_, that name was so weird to say, "he won't stop pestering you until you say yes. So just go grab your deck and get this over with."

"I wouldn't phrase it as 'getting it over with', but I agree with Chazz," Sho piped up. "Big Bro will make sure you have a good time; I think the only people who _haven't_ enjoyed a duel with him are bad guys, a third-year Obelisk, and Chazz."

Chazz growled.

"I still don't think it's a good idea," Koharu mumbled.

"What's not?"

The four looked towards the west wing to find Asuka had joined them, curious about what they were discussing. "Big Bro is trying to get Maya to duel him," Sho explained.

"Hmm. I don't see why not," Asuka replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Judai always makes a duel a good time. And if you don't have a Duel Disk, you can borrow mine."

"But Asuka-"

"_Go already!_" Chazz shouted.

Koharu bolted out of the building like her life depended on it.

They watched her go, and then Asuka huffed. "You didn't have to yell at her," she pointed out.

"We've been standing here for two minutes saying the same exact thing over and over," he huffed. "At least she's doing something."

"Being nice wouldn't- Oh, whatever. Lecturing you is a waste of time." Asuka began to walk out after Koharu. "I'm going to follow her and make sure she doesn't get lost; it's her first day here, after all. Where are we meeting you guys?"

"The Slifer practice field!" Judai informed. He grinned and began to chuckle wildly. "Man, I can't wait! This is going to be awesome!" Then he bolted towards the stadium.

"AH! Wait up, Big Bro!" Sho cried as he desperately tried to catch up.

"Children," Asuka sighed like the "big sister" she was as she walked out.

Left alone in the hallway, Chazz sighed, too. But he wasn't as amused. If anything, he was mentally preparing himself for the storm no doubtedly coming their way. "Wow Boss, we get to watch her duel!" Yellow cheered.

"Yeah, it's going to be a riot," Chazz grumbled before walking towards the Slifer practice field. The spirit made a confused noise, and Chazz glanced back at him. "You heard her, right? She's terrible. So terrible is what we're going to get."

…

"I can't… I can't duel," Koharu panted as she leaned against a tree. "Why… Why won't they just listen to me? It'll be the worst thing they ever see. They might as **well** be watching dirt duel for what it's worth." She grabbed fistfuls of her hair and felt the beginnings of hyperventilation. "I can't duel, I can't duel, I-"

Her phone went off in the little pouch she had brought, and she inhaled sharply. Then, very shakily, one of her hands let go of her hair and reached underneath her shawl to dig in the pouch and grab it.

"H-hello?" she stated as she answered the call.

"Koharu?"

Oh no.

"Sis, are you okay?" Haruaki asked, concern coating his voice.

As much as she wanted to deny anything was wrong and make sure her older brother didn't worry, Koharu knew that - since he had heard her voice shake - he wasn't going away anytime soon. He would bug her for hours, even if it went into the dead of night (and it already was, she realized, as she quickly checked the time and realized it was almost 11 p.m. in New York).

"Th-there's this guy," Koharu replied. "He… H-he wants to duel me, and when I tried to tell him I'm no good… He wouldn't give up."

"So now you have to duel," her brother concluded. Koharu nodded even though he couldn't see it, but he knew the answer anyway. "Koharu, it'll be okay. Just do your best. You're older now, and you know more about dueling than when you were in grade school."

"It's not enough," she argued, her voice weak. "I'm no good, Haruaki. I'll lose for sure, and then he'll make fun of me, and-"

"Koharu, that's enough!" Haruaki demanded. "None of these negative thoughts. There's no telling how the duel's going to go, or how he's going to respond. You can't keep thinking about the future like this. But if you insist on thinking about it, then let's rationalize: tell me about this guy."

"About Judai? Um, well…" Koharu looked up at the sky through the leaves, and slowly lowered her other hand from her hair as she thought. "He… He actually kind of reminds me of Chazz when we were kids, but… _Brighter_, somehow. Like, not smarter brighter, but… Uh…"

"Friendlier?" the twenty-six-year-old offered.

Koharu pondered on the word for a couple of seconds. "Yeah," she finally agreed. "He was the one who pointed out that no one had welcomed me when I walked into the kitchen last night, and he greeted me after he pointed it out, too. He was the second one to introduce himself, and that was only because he had gotten distracted. Then, when he was told to stop asking me questions, he stopped but also said I could talk to him and his friends about anything."

"I see," Haruaki muttered.

"I also went off on a fashion rant, and instead of making fun of me, Judai just told me that he felt the same way about dueling," Koharu continued. "And when I showed off some of my sketches that I had brought with me, he _really_ liked my Burstinatrix sketch. Heck, he liked all of them. To top everything off, he smiled. A _lot_. I don't think I've ever seen anyone smile as much as Judai."

Haruaki hummed. "Sounds to me you found someone who's just really happy," he stated. "I highly doubt he'll make fun of you, Koharu."

She wanted to agree. Something about Judai made everything feel…_right_. "But Nii-Chan, that's what we thought of Chazz, too," she argued quietly. "What if… What if it just happens all over again?"

There was silence for a few seconds, as if he was trying to find a reason to argue. "I see your point," he finally responded, "but Sis, you can't keep going through life constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Remember what I said yesterday: keep your head up. You can do this."

Koharu sighed through her nose. "Alright," she conceded. "I'll try." She could imagine her brother smiling at that. "You also said yesterday you would be coming soon. Do you know when that is?"

"Honestly, not sure," Haruaki admitted. "David is trying to talk to the owner of the venue if the cast can get a day or two break from rehearsals. If that ends up working out, he said he'll let me come visit you."

"That's very nice of Mr. Patterson," Koharu said, finding a way to smile. "Tell him I said hi, okay?"

"Yeah, and he told me a few days ago that he sends his best wishes," her brother informed. "So go ahead, make our day."

The way he said that… "Is that…a movie quote?" Koharu questioned.

"Love you Sis, bye!"

It was.

Again.

"At least quote movies from your own country!" she shouted even though he had already hung up. She groaned. "Drama freak."

"Who was that?"

Koharu turned her head, finding Asuka walking towards her. _Oh. Right. I was getting my deck,_ she reminded herself. "Just my brother," she replied, stepping away from the tree. "He's way too into showbiz sometimes."

"Preaching to the choir," Asuka chuckled. "Now come on, let's get your deck. Judai will probably destroy the whole building with his excitement if we keep him waiting."

"Sure."

Asuka smiled warmly and then took the lead. Koharu, figuring there was no point fighting anymore, followed the Obelisk girl. _I just hope none of you regret this,_ she thought solemnly.


	4. The Pit of My Stomach a Mess

**"Peace Sign" by Kenshi Yonezu (English Translation by Studio Yuraki)**

* * *

It took a bit of fumbling through the small suitcase she had brought, but eventually Koharu found her deck. And without looking at the cards she owned, Koharu knew it was a sad one.

"Maya, why are you so down on yourself?" Asuka asked. "You haven't even drawn a card, but you look like you only have 200 life points left."

Koharu's frown lightened a tad. "I guess I shouldn't be fretting over it so early, huh?" she replied quietly. "I just…can't help it."

Asuka put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Everything will be fine," she assured. "Judai duels for fun, unless the stakes call for something more serious. So just put your heart into it, and he won't care what the outcome is."

"If you say so." Koharu placed her deck in her pouch. "Let's head back."

They quickly hiked back to the school, finding Daichi and Hassleberry passing by the entrance as they entered. "Hey, ladies!" Hassleberry called. "Where ya goin'?"

"The Slifer practice field," Asuka explained. "Judai challenged Maya to a duel."

"Ah, your first duel here," Daichi commented. "And Judai as your opponent. Honestly could not have started with a better one."

"Why? Is he easy?" Koharu asked.

"Easy?" Hassleberry repeated. "No way! Sarge is one of the best duelists I ever met! The only reason he ain't in Ra is 'cause of his grades."

Oh. Great. Final boss on the first day of school.

All of the pressure.

All of the pressure, indeed.

"Then why would he ask me to duel?!" Koharu cried. "I'm an awful duelist! One of the worst! I told him this!"

The other three students raised eyebrows at her. "Well, because he wants to," Asuka replied. "You heard him last night. He breathes dueling like it's more important than air. So any chance he has to duel someone, he takes it."

"The reason why I believe he is a good first opponent, Maya, is because he will not judge you," Daichi added. "You can just play and not worry about anything else."

"Plus, Sarge believes that no duel is over 'til the last card is played!" Hassleberry chimed in. "So just give it yer all!"

If only it were that easy, Koharu thought.

They made their way to the Slifer field, and when they opened the doors they found Judai hopping from foot to foot with eagerness. "Sho, I can't wait for this duel to start!" he exclaimed, his voice bouncing off the walls.

"I'm sure they'll be back soon," the blue-haired student stated.

Chazz, who looked like he was about to blow the biggest gasket known to man, grumbled out, "Why don't you just run after them since you're insistent to get this duel started?"

"But I don't wanna overwhelm her!" Judai argued. Too late, honestly, the purple-haired girl sighed. "So I just- huh?" Finally hearing their footsteps, Judai turned towards the group of four and grinned so wide Koharu was impressed his face didn't split. "HEY! I didn't even see you guys there! Glad you could make it!"

"Good, great, get this duel started already so this slacker can shut UP!" Chazz shouted.

"Um, sorry," Koharu mumbled. "It took a little bit longer to find my deck than I thought."

"That's okay!" Judai brushed off. "You're here now, so it doesn't matter!"

Koharu nodded. "Um, Asuka, could you take my shawl?" she asked. "I, um, think it'll be a bit restrictive."

"Of course," Asuka stated. With another nod, Koharu slipped out of her garment to reveal her slightly baggy baby blue short sleeve underneath. "And as a trade, here's my Duel Disk."

The purple-haired girl nodded and took the Disk. Then, after noticing that it only supported a right handed duelist much to her dismay, she put the device on her left wrist.

"You'll do great, Maya!" Sho cheered.

"I hope so," she muttered.

"I know so, Missy!" Hassleberry countered. "None of that self doubt, ya hear?"

"Yes, do your best," Daichi encouraged.

Chazz offered up nothing as he stomped off towards the stands.

At least one person understood what they were in for.

Once their small audience was seated, Judai and Koharu took their places on the field. "Ready, Maya?" Judai asked.

"No's not really an option, is it?" the girl replied quietly.

"Hey, you'll have fun, I promise," he assured. "Now come on, Maya," he activated his Duel Disk, and Koharu knew discussion was officially over, "get your game on!"

She took a shaky breath. "Okay, I guess," Koharu mumbled as she too activated the device.

"DUEL!" both players shouted before drawing their cards.

And Koharu was already overboard anxious.

This is a terrible hand! she cried. Two Happy Lovers, Petit Angel, and Wing Egg Elf all on my first turn! The only good card I have is Monster Reborn, but what's that going to do for me right now?! Oh, I'm going to look like such an idiotic five-year-old when I go; Judai's gonna laugh at me for sure! Then she eyed his group of friends. And so will everyone else.

"How about you go first, Maya?" Judai offered.

Koharu whined in her throat. Well, might as well get the humiliation over with, she decided, and she went to draw her sixth card. When she looked at the new monster, her eyes went wide and her face darkened as she let out a mortified squeak. TENDERNESS?! That's not any better! I'd say it's worse! God, why me?

"U-um, well," scanning over her useless hand, Koharu switched the new monster out for Happy Lover, "I-I guess I'll start by playing…" She gulped, and her face soured as she placed the card down. "Happy Lover in Defense Mode. A-and, uh, th-that ends my turn."

She didn't have time to brace for anything before Judai declared, "I play the Elemental HERO Burstinatrix in Attack Mode!" As the FIRE monster appeared on the field, Koharu let out a confused exhale. "Hmm? Something wrong?"

"…No," Koharu stated cautiously. Is he…waiting, then? Waiting for me to be even lamer? She frowned. I wouldn't be surprised.

Judai studied her for a few seconds, and then smiled. "Good! I wanna get this duel rolling! Now Burstinatrix, attack Happy Lover!" The black-haired Elemental HERO charged up a fireball and threw it at the orange ball with wings, sending it straight to the Graveyard. At least my Life Points are safe, Koharu thought. But for how long? I can't turtle forever. "That ends my turn. You're up, Maya."

Taking another shaky breath, Koharu drew her next card. The white, blue, and red cyclone that greeted her made the exhale a bit smoother. Negate Attack. Hopefully that'll buy me time.

"Okay, I play…" Once again, she felt embittered before playing her monster. "Wing Egg Elf, in Defense Mode."

The little egg appeared, its wings acting as barriers. Before she placed down her trap, Koharu glanced over at Judai, still not finding anything that suggested he thought negatively of her. Then she took a gander at the group, and found that they too weren't reacting adversely either. While she was still skeptical, Koharu kept going.

"Then I place one card face down and end my turn."

"Wow, you sound much more confident, Maya!" Judai complimented. The purple-haired girl practically did a double take. She definitely didn't feel confident. There was no way she looked confident. And… Why was he complimenting her at all? "You must have something awesome up your sleeve! I can't wait!"

What was even happening right now?

"'Kay, now I play the Elemental HERO Avian in Attack Mode!" Now the brown-haired duelist had two monsters on the field, and if Koharu was feeling confident, she sure wasn't now. "Avian, attack Wing Egg Elf with Quill Cascade!" Avian beat his wings, and a storm of feathers raced towards the tiny egg. Koharu squeaked as she watched the multiple sharp objects send it straight to the Graveyard. "Now Burstinatrix, Burstfire!"

As another fireball shot towards Koharu, she remembered her face down. ARGH! I'm so stupid! Of course I had to panic at the worst time! "Negate Attack, go!" she quickly shouted. A barrier appeared, saving Koharu's Life Points. At the cost of me looking like an idiot. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Oh man, that's bad luck right there. Sorry, Maya." Wait… He felt sorry for her? "Well, at least your Life Points are safe. Guess I'll just throw down my own face down. Your turn, Maya."

Okay, it's do or die, Koharu told herself as she grabbed the edge of her next card. I screwed up on a good defense with that last move; I only have Petit Angel, Tenderness, and Happy Lover as my monsters; and I'd rather not use Monster Reborn right now. If I don't get a good card, he'll just summon a third monster and completely wipe me out. She stared at her deck and bit her lip. Please, please, please draw something good!

With her eyes closed, Koharu drew her new card, and when she slowly opened her eyes to study it, that confidence Judai said she had finally showed itself to her.

"Judai, let me ask you something," Koharu brought up, calm with her best Poker face (and - surprisingly - she could make a pretty good Poker face). Her opponent seemed intrigued. "You ever play Poker?"

"No," he answered, confused. "Why?"

"When you admit to having a bad hand, it's called folding," she explained. "You end your hand for that round and hope for a good one the next time. There aren't many ways to do that in Duel Monsters, if at all. But I have a way." She showed her spell card that featured a group of people playing Poker, with one of them folding their cards. "And it's called Fold!"

She placed the card into her Disk, and it appeared on the field face up. "So then, you just get a new hand?" Judai questioned as Koharu stacked her cards together.

"That's right," she replied. "I'm sure you noticed that the two monsters I played were weak, only serving as ways to protect my Life Points. My whole hand was like that, and thanks to Fold, all of these bad cards go straight to the Graveyard." Well, almost all, the girl sighed as she discarded her hand. "Now I get the same amount of cards I had in my hand, obviously not counting Fold, plus two. Giving me six cards."

Studying her new hand, Koharu felt much better than the start of the match. "But unlike Poker's fold, I don't end my turn here," she continued. "And since I can keep going, I will, with my two favorite cards. First…" She picked up one of her new monsters and placed her face up. "Warrior Angel, onto the field!"

An angel with long chestnut hair and amber eyes appeared on the field, immediately assuming a battle stance that prominently showed off her flaming sword. Judai seemed incredibly amazed at the sight of the fair skinned woman, his eyes and mouth wide in awe.

"And I'm not done, because now I play another spell card: Heart of the Maiden!" The green card showing a woman in a simple yet beautiful dress bearing a simple smile and folded hands appeared onto the field. "With this card on the field, every LIGHT monster on my side gains an extra 500 Attack Points. Add that to Warrior Angel's 1600 points, and now she's at 2100! Enough to wipe out one of your monsters and a good chunk of your Life Points! Warrior Angel, attack Avian with Holy Flame Strike!"

With a battle cry, the angel flew towards the WIND Elemental HERO and slashed him to pieces, one of the strikes hitting Judai in the process and dropping him to 2900 Life Points. But once Warrior Angel was back on her side and Judai shook the attack off, he grinned wildly.

"Totally awesome, Maya! That's how you duel!" he exclaimed.

That was the final straw.

"Okay, time out," Koharu said. Judai gave her a confused look. "I started this duel with completely awful, childish monsters. That should have told you I'd be nothing more than a pushover. So you should have gotten mad when I pulled out a good move, not happy."

"Why not?"

Koharu blinked. "What?"

"Why can't I be happy for you?" Judai restated. "Duels are supposed to be fun on both sides, and it's no fun if duels are too easy. I would have been sad for you if this just ended, you know?" Then he smiled softly. "And those weak monsters? You put them in your deck because you like them, right?"

"W-well, yeah… When I was a little kid," Koharu quickly muttered out to try and save face.

But Judai countered with, "So you don't like them now?"

He really had her number, and she found she couldn't lie. "…No, I like them," she admitted.

"Then what's the big deal?" the brown-haired duelist asked.

Koharu thought and thought and thought, and finally her shoulders slumped. "Nothing, I guess," she conceded quietly.

Judai hummed, and Koharu knew from the countless times Haruaki had done it that he didn't believe her. However, unlike her brother, Judai smiled once more and replied, "Good! Now let's get back to this duel, 'cause I've got a sweet move, too!"

"What?"

"Yep, it's my face down!" Judai revealed, showing a trap card. "It's called Hero Signal, and whenever one of my monsters is destroyed in battle, I can summon a Level 4 Elemental HERO from my hand or deck. And I just so happen to have the perfect one in my hand anyway. So give it up for Clayman!"

The monster was summoned in Defense Mode, and Koharu had to wonder what her opponent was up to. Well, it's not like I can do much of anything, except wait and see, she decided. She picked one last spell card. "I'll place this card face down, and end my turn."

"Then here I go!" the other teen shouted, drawing from his deck. Whatever he pulled got him excited, and he immediately played it. "I'll use Polymerization to fuse together Burstinatrix and Clayman, creating the Elemental HERO Rampart Blaster!"

Now instead of two monsters with only decent stats, there was one pretty powerful monster… "In Defense Mode?" Koharu questioned. True, the new HERO's Attack Points were lower, but surely Judai had a way to destroy her Warrior Angel and therefore make defending pointless.

"Yeah in Defense Mode!" Judai replied with a grin. "'Cause when Rampart Blaster is in Defense Mode, she can attack your Life Points directly with half of her Attack Points!"

Koharu squeaked as the cannon on the HERO's arm aimed and fired at her. She braced herself and felt the wind rush past her plus the sting of the attack. Well, I'm still winning, I guess, she mused as her counter dropped to 3000. But Judai didn't say if there was a limit to how many times his monster can do that, not to mention his Life Points are practically safe behind that 2500 Defense. Shame on me for assuming I was getting somewhere.

"Too bad I don't have anything to take care of your awesome angel, though," Judai admitted with a laugh. "Oh well. I'll just throw down these two face downs and let you have a go."

If I had to guess, one of those face downs is there to protect his monster, Koharu thought. She eyed her own face down, then looked back at the defending monster. No, I shouldn't risk second guessing myself. I was hoping to use Lightning Vortex when he had more monsters, but I can't risk it. Besides, Lucky Trinket wasn't going to do much else but be some sort of sacrifice.

After drawing, Koharu stated, "I'm playing my face down: Lightning Vortex." The spell card showed itself. "Sacrificing this one card in my hand, your Rampart Blaster is destroyed." A bolt of lightning shot out from the card, and Judai's monster was sent to the Graveyard. "And with your monster gone, Warrior Angel is free to attack your Life Points directly!"

Once more Warrior Angel flew towards the other side of the field, though now it was specifically towards Judai. She slashed with her fire sword, bringing him down to 800-

"Hold on, Miss Smarty Pants!" Judai interrupted with a grin, despite the attack. "What's 2900 minus 2100 plus 1000?"

"1800, but where did the 1000 come from?" Koharu inquired.

"From this handy spell card, Emergency Provisions!" he revealed. "By sacrificing a spell or trap card, I gain an extra 1000 Life Points. Sorry, but I'm not out just yet!"

Koharu cursed herself. With both of his face down cards gone, that meant neither of them had been to protect Rampart Blaster. That means I wasted Lightning Vortex for nothing, she berated. I could have saved Lucky Trinket to summon a monster. She looked at her hand with a grimace. Queen of the Angels is in my hand. I could have summoned her, and then Warrior Angel's Attack Points would have been up to 2400. Not enough to take out his monster, but Queen of the Angels could have done that, and then I would have followed up with an even more powerful attack.

She scanned her hand again. Well, maybe not. I would have needed one more monster, and I'm not getting rid of Warrior Angel. I need her. One trap card stuck out to her, and she bit her lip in concentration. Let's see, I have 3000 Life Points. Hopefully, he won't send out a monster with more Attack Points than that.

"I'll end my turn then by placing a card face down," Koharu decided.

"Cool! Then I'll start mine by summoning the Elemental HERO Bubbleman, in Attack Mode!" Judai declared, and the WATER monster appeared on the field.

"With only 800 Attack Points?" the purple-haired girl questioned.

"Yeah! But that's not why I summoned him. See, when Bubbleman's my only monster on the field, I get to draw two cards and add them to my hand," he explained as he did so. "And this deal just got sweeter, 'cause I just got Bubble Blaster. And when I equip it to Bubbleman, his attack goes up by 800!"

"That's still only 1600 Attack Points," Koharu pointed out as the monster equipped the massive gun.

"Attack Points aren't everything, you know," Judai replied cheekily.

Something clicked in Koharu's head, and she grew angry. "I get it now," she growled out slowly. Judai became confused again. "You're one of those bullies."

The brown-haired boy blinked once, twice, three times before saying, "What?"

Koharu ignored his confusion, thinking it was all part of the game. "You're the type who likes to watch me flounder, gives me false hope before destroying it completely," she continued. "Well it won't work, not this time."

"Hold on Maya-"

"Don't tell me to hold on, you jerk!" Koharu snapped. "Just finish your move so I can end this farce!"

Judai was still completely baffled, and still Koharu ignored it. "Um… Okay? Guess I'll throw down this face down and end it there."

"Good!" Koharu drew fiercely. Magical Stone Excavation, hmm? The only spell card I would want to bring back is Monster Reborn, and- She paused, and eyed at Queen of the Angels. That's it! I have a way to summon her!

"I use the spell card Magical Stone Excavation!" she announced as the card appeared. "With this, by discarding two cards, I can recover a spell card from my Graveyard. And there's one that was in my hand before I used Fold. Monster Reborn!" She placed two cards into the Graveyard, replaced by the one spell, and she quickly grabbed it. "And with it I resurrect one of the monsters I sent to the Graveyard just now: the greatest of angels, the Queen!"

Koharu then summoned another fair skinned angel, this one with a long, flowing dark-and-light green dress. Her weapon of choice was a staff with a green orb floating above it. Once again, Judai seemed mesmerized by the monster.

His opponent still didn't bother.

"As the queen, she invigorates her warriors," the teen explained. "Meaning that any other Fairy type monsters on my side of the field gain an extra 300 Attack Points. So along with the boost Warrior Angel already has thanks to Heart of the Maiden, she now has 2400!" The angel let out her third battle cry as she grew even stronger. "And speaking of boosts, because Queen of the Angels is also a LIGHT monster, she gains 500 Attack Points, bringing her to 2900!" With two powerful monsters in her possession, Koharu felt more confident than ever. "So, what was that again about not everything revolving around Attack Points? With this one turn, I'll prove you and everyone else wrong for good!"

"Maya, I have-"

"Warrior Angel, attack Bubbleman with Holy Flame Strike!" But when the flame sword slashed at the Elemental HERO, only the blaster was destroyed. "What?" Koharu hissed.

"When Bubbleman has Bubble Blaster equipped and is attacked, Bubble Blaster is the one that takes the hit," Judai told her. Koharu felt her fists tighten. "Maya, please just-"

"I'm still going to win!" the girl declared heatedly. "Queen of the Angels, annihilate Bubbleman with Heavenly Light!" The orb glowed brightly before the queen flung the light towards the WATER monster.

But Judai had another counter. "I activate my trap, Hero Barrier!" The wind of the attack still rushed past him, but once again his Life Points were untouched. Koharu let out a furious cry through clenched teeth. "Maya please listen to me!" Judai begged quickly. "I don't know why you think I'm trying to bully you. I'm just putting in the effort because I always duel at my best, no matter who my opponent is."

"Shut up!" Koharu cried as she stomped her foot and yanked at her hair. "Shut up, shut up, shut up! I know this tactic, too!" She began to leak frustrated tears. "You're trying to butter me up, be nice, whatever! But once you win you'll knock it all down! And I told you I'm not having it! I'll win so it won't happen ever again!"

Judai was in full-on distressed mode, but Koharu was definitely not having any of it. "…Is your turn over, then?" he finally asked tenitavely.

Koharu didn't answer right away, still red with rage and frustration. Eventually though, with no good spell or trap cards to place, she replied, "Go ahead."

Her opponent breathed through his nose. "Alright." He drew his next card, looked at it, and then at Koharu. "I'm really sorry, Maya, for whatever happened to you," he said. Koharu's eyes widened, but she was still angry. "Whoever made you feel this way is a bad person. And I'm sorry that you were led to believe only the strongest monsters win duels, and that you can't use your favorites. I wish I could go easy on you, Maya, so you can get that win you really want. But that wouldn't be fair to me, and especially not to you."

The tears went from a couple of drops to a slow stream. "Why…are you saying all of this?" she choked out.

"Because I am your friend, Maya," Judai insisted. "Because I want us both to get our game on. And honestly, Maya, I think you've done a super awesome job at that." He smiled. "For someone who says they're terrible at dueling, you've pulled off some pretty sweet moves. If it weren't for my trap card I'd been done for, and that doesn't mean you're bad. It means I just happened to play my cards right."

"…But," Koharu stated flatly, her voice still constricted.

Judai frowned. "You always try to look at the bad side of things," he noted. "Seriously, whoever made you this way is a piece of work." He sighed and looked at his card. "But yeah, I can't just let you win. Like I said, I always play at my best and do everything I can to win. Which in this case," Judai flipped around the card he drew, "means playing my own Monster Reborn! And I use it to bring back Clayman!" The EARTH monster once again appeared on the field, and Koharu felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "And to keep this party rolling, I'm using the Polymerization Bubbleman let me draw along with Elemental HERO Sparkman that's in my hand to create Elemental HERO Thunder Giant!"

With the roaring giant only having 2400 Attack Points, Koharu almost began to assume it was a mistake. No, she thought, the sinking feeling plunging deeper and deeper, this has to do with Attack Points not being everything again. So what's going to happen now?

"You're waiting on Thunder Giant's Special Ability, aren'tcha?" Judai stated sympathetically. Koharu's breath hitched, but she nodded her head slowly anyway. "I kinda guessed, since you tensed up. Yeah, he has a Special Ability. One that'll take out your Warrior Angel."

"No!" Koharu tried to shout, but her crying made it come out as a squeak.

"Maya, I'm not going easy on you," her opponent told her for the third time. "So on your turn, I expect you to get your game on too, okay?" Koharu didn't reply, just simply tensed herself more for the assault. "Now, Thunder Giant's Special Ability: if there's a monster on the field whose original Attack Points are lower than his own, he gets to destroy that monster."

It clicked. "A-and… W-W-Warrior Angel's Attack P-Points… They were-"

"1600," Judai remembered. "Way lower than my monster's, which means she's automatically destroyed."

And with one bolt of lightning, destroyed she was.

Along with almost all of the confidence Koharu had gained.

"But my turn's not done," the other teen declared. There's more?! "The last card in my hand happens to be one of my favorite field spell cards: Skyscraper!" Thanks to the holograms, a city rose up from the ground around the duelists, and Koharu's head swiveled to watch it all. "Now when a monster with 'Elemental HERO' in its name battles, if it has lower Attack Points than your monster, it gains 1000!"

And since he does have less than the Queen, he'll get that increase and go to 3400! Maya realized. I can't even use Astral Shift to save her; that would take me out!

"Thunder Giant, attack the Queen with Voltic Thunder!" Judai ordered. The giant once again shot a large bolt of lightning, only he used both of his hands for the attack. The Queen screamed before she was sent to the Graveyard, and Koharu went down to 2500 Life Points. "But hold on just a second, 'cause I've still got Bubbleman, and he's going straight for your Life Points!"

The torrent of bubbles thankfully didn't soak her, but they still stung upon impact. Not more than the sting to the little bit of self-confidence Koharu was holding on to, however. What am I going to do? she questioned with defeat and fear as her counter dropped to 1700. I have to summon a strong monster to beat his Thunder Giant. But if I do, on his turn all of his monsters will just gain 1000 Attack Points again.

"Alright, Maya, time for you to throw down," Judai insisted.

What do I have to "throw down", though? Maya thought. She put her fingers on the next card. Unless I get lucky and draw a good monster, I won't be throwing down anything. She drew the card, finding herself with a second Petit Angel. She brightened a tad. Maybe this could work. With a 500 attack boost, Petit Angel goes to 1100 Attack Points. Enough to take out Bubbleman and withstand enough of Thunder Giant's attack to still keep me in the game. Then she eyed her opponent and frowned. But what if, on his next draw, he pulls out another monster? I wouldn't have any defense. Her eyes went back to her card. Is it worth it to play my hand, or just fold over?

"What a loser! Going down without a fight!"

"A lo-ser, a lo-ser, Ko-ha-ru's a lo-ser!"

"Did you hear her excuse? 'I didn't draw any of my lame monsters so I couldn't defend anyway'!"

"How much more retarded could you get?"

The frustrated tears returned with double the force as the painful memories rushed through her head. "I play Petit Angel in Attack Mode!" she declared. "And with its 1100 Attack Points thanks to Heart of the Maiden, it'll destroy your Bubbleman!"

Beating its wings as fast as it could, the tiny angel charged towards the Elemental HERO and sent it to the Graveyard with all of its might, along with 300 of Judai's Life Points.

"And… And that's my turn," Koharu concluded, hesitant even though she had thought of this plan. Come on, please pull out a useless card, something to buy me time. She tensed up again. Please, please, please!

"'Kay then, here I go!" Judai shouted, drawing his card with force. He glanced at it, and then looked back at Koharu. With an inhale through his nose, he made his move. "I play the Elemental HERO Wildheart in Attack Mode!"

Koharu's eyes widened, and the slow stream of her tears flowed even faster. "No, please no!" she cried.

"Maya, it's okay," Judai soothed, smiling. "You did good. I said it once and I'll say it more. But we're ending this duel. Wildheart, attack Petit Angel!" Realizing that once again Astral Shift would be useless, Koharu watched hopelessly as her monster was destroyed, dropping her Life Points to 1300. "Now Thunder Giant, finish this with Voltic Thunder!"

In the moments the LIGHT monster charged his electricity, Koharu was reminded of the first duel she ever had using the hologram technology Kaiba Corp. had created. It had gone the same way as this duel, she realized, where she had victory in her grasp right before it was violently ripped from her. And by a lightning attack, no less.

The attacks that, in her opinion, hurt the most when it was a direct attack.

She was never entirely sure why Kaiba Corp. had the holographic attacks feel like they were inflicting damage to the player along with their monsters. Perhaps it was for a more immersive experience, or maybe it was a vendetta. Whatever the reason, it made Koharu scream in pain. And just like the other duel, when the crackle and pop and sizzle of electricity finally faded, she fell to her knees with her mouth agape and tears rushing down her face.

And there was the same chant going on, too. Only this time, Koharu was the cause.

"A loser… A loser… I'm such a loser," she croaked.

"Maya?"

Koharu looked towards the voice through watery vision to find Judai kneeling down next to her, his hand reaching out and with an extremely concerned look on his face. She stared at him, her chest starting to hurt from all of her heaving as she tried to process what he was doing. When it finally clicked in her head - despite all of her accusations and even her still screaming anxiety that this was all a trick - Koharu detached the Duel Disk and jumped into his arms, bawling her eyes out.

Judai didn't say anything. No hushes to calm her down, no requests to lower her volume, no complaints about the tears and snot that were no doubt on his jacket. He just held her close and let her cry and cry and cry.

After what felt like an eternity later for Koharu, she finally stopped crying, her sobs quieting down to sniffles and her tears gone. Once she was completely silent save for slightly uneven breathing, Judai helped her stand up with some gentle coaxing, but he didn't let go of her.

"I'm sorry, Maya," he stated quietly.

She shook her head slowly. "I'm…used to losing," she replied, her throat scratchy.

"That wasn't what I meant." Koharu peered up at him, noticing his sympathetic gaze. "I guess I'm sorry for that too, though. What I meant really was that I'm sorry you were hurt."

Koharu blinked a few times. A person like Judai couldn't actually be for real… Right?

She lowered her head and frowned deeply. "I'm used to that, too," she whispered.

"Well that's stupid!" Asuka bluntly declared from behind them.

While Judai simply looked towards her, Koharu - who had completely forgotten their audience - jumped and squeaked before whipping her head to the blonde teen. She was glaring at Koharu, except not exactly. It's like she was glaring at some invisible force surrounding Koharu… If that made any sense.

"I can't believe someone would make you think that everyone you come across is a bully!" Asuka huffed as she gathered Koharu's forgotten deck and her Duel Disk. "Idiots, I swear."

"Damn right!" Hassleberry agreed. "Ain't no reason to say those kinds of things to anybody!"

"Forget all of those stupid bullies, Maya, we're here for you now!" Sho insisted.

There was nothing Koharu could find to say. Everything seemed like so much at once, and she leaned into Judai a little, since he still hadn't moved or let go. "Perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more private," Daichi offered. Just the thought of a new location had Koharu easing up a tad. "Your dorm is still open, right Chazz?"

Koharu tensed up again, but before she could even think about apologizing for invading on his personal space or suggest they go somewhere else, Chazz dug into one of his pockets and tossed a key to Judai.

"Let yourselves in, I'm going on ahead," the black-haired teen announced as he began walking out. "I'll be there in a few minutes," he stopped to look at Judai with an accusing gaze, "and I better not find out you copied my homework, Slacker."

"Nah, not today," Judai laughed lightly. "We've got more important things to worry about."

Chazz snorted and rolled his eyes but then looked on gently. "I promise, I won't be long," he told the group.

Or, so it seemed.

Koharu knew that look. How many times had she seen it when they were kids? Too many to count, she reminded herself as Chazz continued walking. And she figured the look and the statement had been a promise directly at her because he knew she wouldn't believe him otherwise.

All these years, she mused, and he still knows me.

And it should have probably scared her. Maybe even angered her. But at that moment, wrapped back in her shawl, Judai walking next to her while she was still in his hold...

Maybe, just maybe, everything would be okay.


	5. Feel the Pain When It Hits You

**"Trenchtown Rock" by Bob Marley**

* * *

Despite all of the complaints he could make against Koharu's breakfast he had that morning, if she were a bragger she could at least brag that it was made completely by hand.

Chazz, meanwhile, made instant miso.

What an upstanding guy.

"Whatcha makin', Boss?" Yellow asked.

"Miso soup," Chazz answered surprisingly calm, waiting for the microwave to go off.

"Why?"

"Because it's comfort food with a high protein count."

"But why are you making it?"

"Because if there's one definite way to calm Koharu down, it's eating miso soup."

All of his questions answered, Yellow shut up as Chazz took the bowl out of the microwave and added some tofu and seaweed that he found in the fridge and cabinet. The silence gave him time to think about the duel he had just witnessed.

And he had to wonder if he had a hand in causing that much anxiety and distrust.

Seriously, just one look at Judai and someone could tell he was sunshine and rainbows shoved into a human-looking form. Heck, for all Chazz knew he was actually Shining Friendship. Yet, for some reason, Koharu had continued to insist that he was a bully like all the kids at their grade school.

_No,_ he denied as he shook his head. _It's not my fault. I was helping her through all of that. Why would she blame me?_

He knew more tears were to come, along with a story he had lived through. So, as he finished making the miso and began to walk out with it, he braced himself once more for the events that were undoubtedly about to unfold.

…

"What do you mean you're not hungry?!" Chazz snapped.

Honestly, Koharu was wondering the same thing. Miso soup was something she was always hungry for, especially in times like this where her anxiety was beyond the stratosphere. And yet…

"I'm just not hungry," Koharu replied as she stared blankly at the food in front of her.

Before Chazz could yell again, Daichi intervened. "Whether you feel hungry or not, I suggest you eat, Maya," he stated. Koharu lifted her head to look at him. "Your body needs the fuel to recover from the strong emotions you are experiencing."

He was right, so she took the miso soup without argument and began to eat it. Immediately, she realized it was instant miso, something on the higher end of things she didn't like. _But Chazz took the time to make it, and it's not like I could expect him to make it like April, _she thought.

She ate the soup quickly and quietly, and once it was all gone she placed the bowl on the table. "Thank you very much, Chazz," she muttered.

"Whatever," he snorted before plopping on the far couch, his arms crossed.

"Maya, are you feeling better?" Sho asked from his place on the floor.

Koharu sighed out her nose. "I think…for the moment." She brought her sandalless feet up to her chest and under her shawl as she leaned against the armrest. "But I want to feel _better_, and I just…never know how to do that."

Asuka, who had taken Judai's place at being by Koharu's side, gently brushed some of her purple hair behind her ear. Koharu hummed lightly, relaxing a bit as she was reminded of her mother's soft, loving fingers.

"Is it because of those bullies?" the blonde questioned.

"Mostly," Koharu answered. "I've always been shy. When I was in preschool, I would sit in the corner and read books or play with blocks because whenever I tried to play with the other kids I would chicken out. At least, that's what the nursery aides told my parents, and that's what they told me."

"So then the other children found you strange because you would never engage with them," Daichi guessed. "Or, if you tried to attempt, would immediately run away."

"Exactly," the purple-haired girl confirmed. "And I guess it wasn't _too_ bad. I was just a little weird." She frowned deeply. "But then grade school started, and suddenly I was more than just a little weird. Suddenly I was a loser, and you didn't talk to me unless you intentionally wanted to ruin your reputation."

"Wow, what a bunch of assholes," Asuka snorted.

"So, did you not have friends?" Sho asked.

_Oh boy, this is going to be a nightmare to explain around, _Koharu thought. She breathed deeply before explaining, "Well, yes. One. But, he, um… He didn't get involved much."

Judai had been in a laid-back position on the floor next to Sho, but he practically bolted upright when she said that. "He would just _leave _you?" he gasped.

"No!" Koharu denied quickly, feeling Chazz's slowly simmering rage. "No, not at all! He… H-he was there, just…not when the bullies were."

"When you needed him most?! That's awful!" Sho exclaimed angrily. "He was bad as those bullies then!"

"I-it's not his fault!" the Slifer girl defended. "I _told _him not to be there because he was a popular guy, and I didn't want him to suffer because of me."

"That ain't how friends work, Maya," Hassleberry countered, miffed. "If that guy cared fer ya, he would have ignored that and been there fer ya anyway."

"Hassleberry's right, Maya! He was an uncaring jerk!" Sho agreed.

No one but Koharu noticed Chazz rolling his eyes and sinking further back into the couch. "T-that's how it was," Koharu dismissed, not wanting to anger him further. He might spill everything out of spite if she did. "And really, it's not like his support would have helped. There were so many, sometimes it felt like the whole school was against me. My classmates would make fun of my drawings because fantasy characters shouldn't wear modern clothing. Kids from other classes made fun of me on the playground because I was always by myself." She began to twiddle her fingers. "But what I was made fun of the most for were my dueling skills… Or, lack thereof."

"I thought you didn't duel," Asuka pointed out.

"I didn't," Koharu replied. "But I collected the cards. I liked how some of them looked. Happy Lover was my first, because I thought it was cute. And Warrior Angel…" She smiled fondly. "When I looked at her art and read her lore, I wanted to be just like her." She looked at the group. "Have you ever seen it? It's simple, but I love it. 'This warrior will fight with all her might to protect those in need'. Whenever I have her in my hand, I always feel so much better."

"I feel that way with Burstinatrix and Avian," Judai stated with a smile, relaxing again. "Sparkman and Clayman, too. Heck, I'd say all of my monsters. Heroes make me feel safe."

Koharu smiled back at him, but then it turned to a frown as she stared at the carpet. "So yeah. I would just collect monster cards because of the art, not caring about levels, effects, or Attack and Defense Points," she explained. "And because I collected only monsters, people would force me to duel them so they could have easy wins. With no spells or traps to counter, no synergy between my cards, or even a basic understanding of how the game worked, I always lost. And since Duel Monsters means everything, everyone mocked me for being terrible at it and I… I was called…a lost cause."

"That is not your fault," Daichi said. "No one taught you rules to a game you were not interested in to begin with. Calling you a lost cause is inaccurate."

"Didn't seem that way," the girl muttered. "And it didn't help that, even when I studied and began to understand the rules, I still kept losing. They would always get high leveled monsters onto the field, and then that was that. I'd just lose. And when I tried to bring up that strong monsters didn't always win, they'd…say it was an excuse and mock me."

Suddenly, there was a quick, loud _THUMP_, and Koharu jumped at the sound. "I'm so sorry!" Judai, now on his feet, cried.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Koharu asked, still shaken up.

"'Cause I said that Attack Points weren't everything, and I was just trying to have fun when I said it, but I just made it worse and I'm sorry!" he explained hysterically.

But the purple-haired girl furiously shook her head. "No, y-you didn't do anything wrong," she assured. Judai opened his mouth, but Koharu quickly continued. "I tried to ignore everything they said. You know, 'words will never hurt me'?"

Hassleberry raised an eyebrow. "Ya actually believed that BS?" he questioned.

"I wanted to," Koharu whispered, flinching slightly at both his question and at the swear even if it was censored. "I wanted to so bad. My… My friend would say something along those lines all the time, and he was always right, so I wanted him to be right about that, too."

"Okay, seriously, was that the only advice he gave?!" Sho shouted. "Just cover your ears and go 'lalalalala'?"

"Well, I mean, it kinda made sense," Koharu quickly muttered, once again trying to prevent Chazz from exploding. "They bullied me verbally, so if I just shut them out and ignored them, everything would - theoretically - be okay."

"But it wasn't," Asuka solemnly observed. She put a comforting hand on Koharu's shoulder. "That's why you're so nervous now, and…" At her pause, Koharu turned to the blonde and found that she was trying to piece something together in her mind. A few moments later, her hazel eyes widened. "Wait, you said you were homeschooled. Did they drive you _out of school_?"

_What a loser! Who'd __**ever**_ _wanna hang out with someone who can't even talk right?_

The memory was one she always recalled, but it still blindsided her like a bullet train, and she coiled into a tight ball as she began to sob harshly. "Maya, I-"

"They did!" she cried, cutting off Asuka's desperate apology. "I- I ran away! I couldn't take it anymore!" Words from her past began whispering all of the taunts in her mind, and she covered her ears like she always did. "I- I-I told my parents I didn't want to go to school anymore! It was all too much and I didn't want to be around people anymore and- and-"

Suddenly, it felt like she was drowning, her chest heavy and her vision blurring. An extremely tiny part of her mind knew she was experiencing a panic attack and that she needed to calm down, but she couldn't stop to breathe. The voices grew increasingly louder, and the couch below her felt like it no longer existed, and slowly the people in the room began to fade.

And they would.

Everyone but her family always did-

"Maya!"

Startled, Koharu's head snapped up, and she winced slightly at the throbbing muscle. But the wince didn't stop her hyperventilation.

It did, however, make her realize Daichi was in front of her, with a very grounding, calm expression.

"Sorry, I did not mean to startle you. I only wished to grab your attention," the Ra said soothingly. Still, Koharu's lungs wouldn't stop working double time. "Let us start with that breathing before we move on, shall we? Watch my hand, focus on it and me, understand?" Hyper focused on his right hand, Koharu watched it move up, pause, and then go back down. "Breath in rhythm with it, Maya. In… Out…"

She tried, but Koharu felt like she wasn't getting anywhere. "T-…" she tried to choke out, but some small part of her mind was fairly certain she didn't say anything that sounded even remotely close to any language.

"Take it slow," Daichi advised calmly, continuing to move his hand. "Do not think about how slowly it is taking. We will get through this, no matter how long it takes."

Koharu responded by trying her hardest to follow his pattern. They tried to even out her breathing for a few minutes in silence, and then Daichi began to talk again.

"You know, I never did tell you how I felt about your drawings last night." The girl attempted to give him a curious look; she wasn't entirely sure she succeeded. "No one would let me get in a word, but I wanted to tell you that I loved your Litmus Doom Swordsman."

"Wait, she drew that?" someone gasped in excitement somewhere in the background. Koharu couldn't exactly hear well enough at the moment to identify who it was.

Daichi's eyes didn't move from hers, but he smirked slightly as he answered his friend. "Quite. The rest of you were too busy gawking over Dark Magician Girl. Though, I cannot say I am surprised; that one was a spectacular piece in its own right." Koharu blushed but didn't stop following his hand. "I loved how elegant you made him, and the clothing choice was perfect. Where did you get the idea?"

"…My brother," she quietly replied. It was still a bit of a struggle to talk, but she found her panic attack was starting to disappear faster than usual. "He works in…the theater business. In New York…actually. When I told him…I wanted to draw…Litmus Doom Swordsman…he requested that…since I was…already doing something elegant…I help him think…of a costume design for…one of the male characters in…a play he was a part of."

"That is quite the honor," Daichi commented with a wide smile. She blushed again. "What play was it?"

"_Much Ado…About Nothing_," she told him. "The company…had a difficult time…finding a great costume…designer. So Haruaki…said he knew someone…who could at least…give other artists an idea…of what they were…looking for. He asked me to…create a design for…Don John. So I used…Litmus Doom Swordsman as…the base because I thought…they would be close in 'personality'…as it were."

"Now that I think about it, I can definitely see Don John in your drawing," Daichi stated.

"Have you seen…_Much Ado About Nothing_?" Koharu asked with wonder.

Daichi chuckled. "Would you and your brother be jealous if I said my parents took me to see it in England at Shakespeare's Globe?"

Koharu's eyes widened. "No way," she breathed.

"It is true," the Ra assured. "They are huge fans of English theater, and _Much Ado About Nothing _is one of my mother's favorite plays. So for her birthday a few years ago, my aunt arranged a trip to England during its showing. At first, it was only going to be my parents, but my mother did not want me to be left out of the experience."

"That's so sweet," Asuka piped up.

At that point, Koharu realized the whole room had come back into focus. The couch was solid, the voices had disappeared, and…

Everyone was there.

"Yes, it was fun," Daichi replied to the second half of Asuka's question that Koharu hadn't caught. "I even got to duel a few matches during our stay. For an impromptu decision on my part, I would say a record of 4-1 was not that bad." Then Daichi noticed that Koharu was completely back with the group, and his expression - while still sympathetic - turned serious. "Are you better, Maya?"

"I am," she responded. "That's the fastest I've ever calmed down from a panic attack."

"My father is a psychologist," Daichi explained. "I do not know as many tricks as him, but I believe I know some useful information."

There were soft, gentle hands on Koharu's, and she turned to Asuka, who looked very concerned and guilty. "Maya… I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't mean for that to happen."

"You didn't know that it would happen," Koharu countered. "I'm the only one here who knows how bad it was." _Well… Kind of._

"Bad memories most certainly do not help in panic attacks staying away," Daichi commented. "We should not have pushed you so much." Asuka nodded, and there was a collective noise of agreement.

Meanwhile, Chazz was silent.

Koharu shook her head, though, as she also pushed that nugget of information down. His silence could mean a lot of things. "If I didn't want to answer, I wouldn't have," she pointed out. "Because you guys wouldn't have made me if I didn't want to… Right?"

"Of course!" Sho exclaimed. "We've told you before and we'll tell you a thousand times more, Maya: we're your friends, and friends are there for each other! We'd never make you do something you didn't want to do!"

"Definitely!" Hassleberry agreed.

"Maya," Judai piped up, and Koharu looked at him. He seemed to be contemplating something, probably what to say next because he didn't want to cause another panic attack. At least, that's what Koharu assumed. Finally, he figured out what he wanted to ask. "Why did you come to Duel Academy if you don't like being around people anymore? You said last night you were homeschooled; why did you stop?"

The girl thought carefully about how to properly phrase her explanation. "Well…" she began after a couple of minutes. "My dad's friend, Mr. Iwao Tao… Almost every other December, usually a week or two before Christmas, he holds a winter ball…"

XXX

Koharu nervously tugged at her ankle-length ball gown. Large crowds were hard for her to handle, and the winter ball Mr. Tao was hosting was definitely pushing it. But she promised her parents she would try, so she walked around the mansion's large ballroom, politely bowing to the few adults who acknowledged her presence.

Eventually, probably because she was so close to the conversation, she couldn't help but overhear, "It is a pleasure to see you out and about, Mr. Kaiba."

That, or the very important name.

…Probably more of the latter, honestly.

So Koharu found herself eavesdropping as Kaiba returned the greeting to the woman with fake sincerity. Well, at least, Koharu assumed it was fake. But, knowing Kaiba, it probably was.

"You know, Mr. Kaiba, I couldn't help but overhear that quite the troubling incident happened at your dueling school," the woman brought up much too casually for what was supposedly "troubling". Koharu could only guess some form of blackmailing was on the way. "A _cult_ by the name The Society of Light, if I recall."

"You heard correctly, unfortunately," Kaiba replied, seemingly unfazed by the casual yet snooty complaint.

Koharu wished she had some of his nerve.

"Though, I believe I also heard that everything has calmed down, yes?" Kaiba hummed a confirmation. "Of course, I would never expect less from you, Mr. Kaiba." Koharu was usually not very good at reading faces, but even she could tell from the woman's face that her compliment was more of a lie. Another red flag for incoming blackmail. "What actually concerns me, Mr. Kaiba, is the lack of core classes."

"As I have told other parents before you, ma'am," Kaiba began coolly, clearly tired of explaining the whole thing over again, "Duel Academy is an academy for aspiring _duelists_. _If_ my staff and I were to add core classes, we would have to test if they work with the current classes we offer."

Something clicked in Koharu's brain. She wasn't sure what, but she knew it _had _to be something to do with these core classes. _Maybe if I talk with Dad, I'll be able to figure this out, _she thought. _And then, he can bring up the idea to Mr. Kaiba, and maybe his reputation will improve. Yeah, of course! It's been terrible seeing his reputation suffer, so maybe you can help Mr. Kaiba even if he never knows it was you but that would be co-_

"Ah, what an _adorable_ dress you have on, dear!" the woman squealed.

…Wait, what?

When had she walked towards them? And when had they started looking at her? And…

_Oh Lord Mr. Kaiba's staring at me what do I do I can't do this I gotta run why am I here I was going to find Dad where is he-_

"You have something to say or are you wanting to catch flies?" Kaiba snarked, freezing Koharu's thought dead cold.

The woman huffed, sounding insulted. "She is a _child_, Mr. Kaiba!" she scolded. When the man rolled his eyes, that was the last straw for her, and she stalked away. "Honestly, the _nerve_ of some people."

"Says the woman attempting blackmail not a minute ago," Kaiba hissed under his breath.

_He caught on, too, I guess. _

Her thought was the only reprieve she had, because he then turned his full attention back to Koharu, and she froze again.

"What do you want?" Koharu opened her mouth, but her voice completely failed her, so all that came out was an extremely quiet squeak. The young CEO let out a long annoyed sigh. "Look, I don't have time for you to stare at me all night, I have people to meet."

Time slowed as he began to turn around, and Koharu was at a loss of what to do. _If… If I let him leave… I'll never get the chance to meet him again, I know it. And if I don't then I can't… I can't help Mr. Kaiba if don't say-_

"Core classes!" she blurted out.

Kaiba stopped, and turned his head. "What?"

Koharu gulped loudly, but for once she didn't stop despite her anxiety. "Core classes!" she repeated. "I-I wanna help with core classes!"

The CEO raised an eyebrow. "Really…" After about a moment or so, he scoffed and turned around once more. "Come back to me when you're less squirrely."

With that, he disappeared into the crowd.

"…That was so terribly awful, why am I so stupid?" Koharu whined quietly. She turned herself and began to search out her dad. "I should have just done this from the start. I hate when I get so mesmerized."

Thankfully, her dad's thick, curly dark purple hair stuck out easily in the crowd, and she found him in under ten minutes. He was talking with another man, maybe a client or a potential business partner. Koharu gulped, feeling rude for interrupting, but she was on a rare mission, so she didn't let her manners stop her from approaching her dad.

"Hmm? Ah, is there something you need, Angel?" her dad asked as he turned to her, a smile on his face. Apparently, he didn't find it rude that he had just abruptly ended a conversation with another person.

Koharu eyed the other man nervously before she replied, "I-if it's no trouble, Father, may I speak with you?"

"Your daughter is certainly well trained, Mr. Komatsu," the other man commented before her dad could say anything.

He turned back to the man and narrowed his eyes. "Well _mannered_, Mr. Hibashi," he corrected. "My daughter is not a _pet_; if you continue to be rude to my family, you will find that contract ending earlier than expected." Mr. Hibashi looked like he had been slapped across the face, but he smartly responded with a simple bow and left.

"U-um, d-did I ruin a deal?" Koharu questioned.

"Of course not, Angel," her dad assured with another smile. "He was starting to get on my nerves, anyway. You know I don't tolerate rudeness, so don't feel responsible when the only person he has to blame is himself." Koharu nodded, even if she still felt guilty. "Now, what did you need, Koharu?"

She bit her lip and shuffled her feet, but her dad was patient through it all. Finally, she stated, "I…overheard a conversation, and it…gave me an idea…"

XXX

"My dad overheard a conversation Mr. Kaiba was having with one of the parents," she lied. "He told me about what they were talking about, and the idea he got from it. See, my parents wanted me to try interacting with people again, and he figured since it was an academy that only a select number of people can attend, it would be just the right size for me to not get overwhelmed."

"So the two of you approached Kaiba to offer you as a guinea pig," Daichi noted.

Koharu nodded, and then massaged her neck. It still kind of hurt from when she had snapped it upright, but she was also demonstrating yet another one of her nervous habits. "It…didn't go entirely well at first," she admitted.

XXX

Kaiba had never looked so _drained_ before. Of course, he had probably felt that way so many times before being a CEO of an extremely profitable company, but that was only something Koharu could have assumed he experienced.

To see the usual cool, collected, experienced Seto Kaiba be so exhausted was definitely… an experience.

"For the last time, _yes_, I've heard of the incident," Kaiba groaned when her dad brought up the subject. "We've dealt with it, what more do you want?"

But he was caught off guard when Koharu's dad laughed. "Ah, the flood of complaints," he stated. "Never gets old, huh? Besides, neither of my children _go _to your academy." Kaiba blinked, but then relaxed and motioned for him to proceed. "The reason my daughter and I approached you was because we wanted to discuss the possibility of her testing these core classes you are thinking of implementing."

That got Kaiba's attention. "And what would make your daughter qualified to test out a core class system at a dueling academy?" he questioned, actually sounding and looking invested.

"My daughter is a very good student," her dad explained, and Koharu began to blush. "If you need proof, I can send her report cards and teacher's remarks. She also happens to see dueling as, at most, a hobby. So if the other parents believe that someone else would become distracted by dueling, I'm sure she would be able to put their minds at ease." He then placed a hand on her shoulder, and Koharu looked up to find him smiling. "Even if she begins to enjoy dueling, I know she wouldn't let that get in the way of her studies."

The young CEO let out a soft, thoughtful grunt. "Very well, I'll consider it," he said. "I would like to see her records before the week ends, and then we can discuss her enrollment. What do you think, Ms. Koma-"

"Sato!" Koharu blurted out. "Maya Sato! That's my name!"

Both men raised eyebrows at her. "Koharu, what's with the new name?" her dad asked.

"I just… W-well, I-I don't want people at school to know our n-name," she told him, shifting from foot to foot. "It would make me…n-nervous."

"You do realize all of the Obelisk Blue students and a handful of the Ra Yellows come from equally wealthy families, Ms. Komatsu," Kaiba informed, crossing his arms. "I'm pretty sure at least a few of them are just as nervous. I don't see why you should be given the exception and have you under an alias."

Koharu gulped and tugged at the hem of her shirt. "You… You really can't make an exception?" she pleaded. "I just… My family… Our business… It, um, p-puts a lot of pr-pressure on me, and I'm not…c-comfortable with it."

Kaiba narrowed his eyes, and the girl felt her heart leap into her throat. "Your point being? Ms. Komatsu, I do not like repeating myself, but there are children of families with just as successful companies and therefore just as high expectations. Why should _you_ get a free pass? I'm sure plenty of other students would not want to feel responsible for any downfalls their families may face. If you are this squirrely, don't bother; you wouldn't last in Duel Academy."

"I… I-I guess," Koharu mumbled. "I'm…s-sorry, I…"

Then, the memories of her bullies flashed through her mind.

The ones that made fun of her for wanting to be a lowly artist that worked on the floor instead of leading from the highest office. The ones that insulted her art in the first place. The ones that taunted her because she would never be anything because she was such a pushover that no matter the demand she gave it would be ignored because who had time to listen to a loser like her-

"Koharu, listen to my voice," her dad sternly yet calmly directed. Koharu sucked in a sharp breath, and then she nodded slowly. The two of them did some deep breathing exercises for many minutes. As her dad tried to even out Koharu's breathing, her eyes darted around the room like nervous insects, and at one moment in particular, they fell on Kaiba.

And he seemed… concerned?

_N-no, _Koharu thought, falling back into more of a panic. _M-Mr. Kaiba… would never… _

Her dad brought her attention back to his exercises, and finally - after many more minutes - Koharu had calmed down. Sighing in relief and giving his daughter a sympathetic smile, the man then turned back to Kaiba. "My apologies, Mr. Kaiba. My daughter is diagnosed with generalized anxiety, and if she is in a bad situation, she experiences panic attacks."

"I'm sorry," Koharu whispered under her breath, looking at the floor. "I… I understand if you wouldn't want me as your representative."

There was silence for many moments, and then Kaiba finally spoke.

"I never said that."

Koharu's head shot up, and she noticed the young CEO truly meant what he said. "Y-you…would consider?" she asked quietly. "E-even though you s-said I was…squirrely?"

"Oh, you still are, don't think I'm suddenly suggesting you wouldn't have a nervous breakdown at the sight of a fly." _That's…__**maybe**_ _too far… Maybe. _"But, as long as you're a good student like your father claims, I don't see why I shouldn't. And, Maya Sato, yes? Perhaps I can pull some legal strings to make a few copies of your records. _**Perhaps**_. I make no promises."

"That would be very much appreciated, Mr. Kaiba," Mr. Komatsu expressed with a smile. "But whatever happens, we will work with." He looked at the purple-haired girl with a teasing glint in his pale yellow eyes. "Right, _Maya_?"

_Why do I feel like I'm going to regret everything? _Koharu whined.

XXX

"Once my dad explained why we were there, though, the conversation went...pretty smoothly," Koharu concluded. "And after a month of them talking and getting everything set up… Here I am."

"And… How do you feel?" Asuka questioned hesitantly.

Koharu looked around, noticing that everyone was concerned. Everyone except Chazz, though he at least seemed interested in her answer.

"Well, I… I feel more welcomed than I thought I would be," she admitted. The group relaxed, and seeing their smiling faces had her smiling a tad, too. "And, I mean… I'm definitely grateful I met all of you. I guess I just feel a little…" She spent a few moments trying to think of a good word, her hands unconsciously going to the hem of her skirt to fumble around while the small smile she had gained slowly faded. "Lost."

"That's why we're here, to help ya whenever needed!" Hassleberry assured. Sho happily agreed.

"Thank you," Koharu muttered, happy for their kindness. And yet… She stood up, causing some confused gazes. "I… I'm sorry, but… b-but I…"

"Would you like some time alone?" Daichi guessed. A tiny voice in the back of her mind (sounding suspiciously like April) told her that maybe it wasn't a good idea, but Koharu ignored it as she nodded. "Very well, we will let you be. Do not worry about us; we all have class soon, anyway."

She nodded again and went to put on her sandals. "Maya, are you sure?" Judai asked.

"I just want some fresh air," Koharu replied as she took off her indoor slippers. "You don't have to worry about me."

The others nodded in understanding, but Judai didn't look convinced. Eventually, though, he nodded as well (even if it was slow). "If you say so," he muttered with a frown. Not liking the sad look on him, Koharu tried to ease the brown-haired teen's worry with a small smile before closing the door.

Then, once she heard the click of the bolt, she silently sighed.

_Why?_ Koharu thought as she began to walk back towards the academy. _Why are they so willing to waste time on me? They don't even know if their efforts are going to be worth it. _She looked back at the dorms, and as they became smaller and smaller the farther she walked, she frowned deeply. _Maybe… Maybe Mr. Kaiba was right… _She sighed again.

"Maybe I'm too squirrely to be here."

…

When the door closed, Chazz had hoped everyone would leave almost immediately, but then Sho let out a sigh. Of course it couldn't end that easily. "Man, this all sucks," he stated. "What are we going to do?"

"Provide emotional support. That is all we _can_ do," Daichi replied.

"And what if that isn't enough, huh?" Chazz retorted, speaking for the first time in what felt like hours. "She's gotta want it, you know. And who knows if she _wants_ it."

"Chazz, you can't seriously think Maya would want to break down like she did on the field or here on the couch for the rest of her life," Asuka countered.

The black-haired teen sneered but said nothing otherwise, and no one felt like speaking up, either. The room went on in silence for about one of the most awkward minutes ever until Judai stood with purpose.

That definitely spelled "stupid idea".

"What're ya doin', Sarge?" Hassleberry questioned.

He began to stride towards the door. "I'm gonna follow Maya," he declared.

Yep, stupid idea.

"Hey, hey Slacker, maybe think things _through_ for once," Chazz snapped as Judai put on his shoes. "She walked out after Daichi asked if she wanted to stay."

"I agree with Chazz," Daichi brought up. "Some alone time might help."

"But how do we _know_ that?" Judai argued. "She's been alone for so long, how could _more_ be any good? You guys don't have to come along; I'll make sure she knows you guys care in your own way. But I'm going to be with her. Something in me doesn't feel right just sitting here."

Chazz spat. "Whatever, do what you want," he conceded condescendingly. "I'm not gonna stop you."

Everyone else in the room didn't seem to agree with him, but much like Koharu, eventually they let the Slifer go. "_But_," Asuka stressed, stopping Judai right as he was about to open the door. "If Maya tells you that she wants to be left alone, _leave her alone_."

Judai smiled. "I will, I promise."

_Yeah, sure, I'll believe it when I see it, _Chazz thought as the brown-haired teen _finally _left. Then he silently sighed.

_This semester is not gonna be pretty._


	6. Life is Just a Simple Melody

**"The Little Things" by Carlos Bertonatti**

* * *

Judai ran along the dirt path that led back to school, figuring Maya wouldn't take another way. She seemed so sad, and Judai wanted to help however he could, no matter what Chazz said. And while he usually trusted Daichi since he was super smart, Judai felt like leaving Maya alone wouldn't help her at all.

It wasn't long before he saw her, walking slowly with her head hung low. "Hey! Maya!" he shouted.

Maya suddenly stopped and turned her head towards him. "Judai?" she asked when he was at her side. "What are you doing?"

"Catching up with you!" Judai replied with a grin. "So we can hang out some more!"

Her eyes were wide, and she blinked a few times, before her eyes went back to normal and she let out a small huff. "You don't have to do that," she said.

"That's true," Judai laughed. "But I want to, so here I am!"

"_And that's what I'm afraid of."_

Judai let out a gasp of confusion, and from the intense fear on Maya's face, that wasn't supposed to happen. "What do you-"

"F-forget you heard that," Maya interrupted quickly. "I-it was nothing. Nothing important."

"That sounded kinda important to me," Judai responded. "Come on, Maya, what did you mean by that?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," she insisted.

"I _dunnoooo,_" the boy sang, a cheeky grin slowly growing.

Maya frowned and shuffled her feet. "Seriously, Judai, let it go."

He hummed, and then he grinned mischievously. He went to poke her cheek, like he did with Sho whenever he was being needlessly quiet.

But Sho only ever complained.

He never jumped back like he burned his hand on a stove.

Judai blinked as he stared at Maya, who was completely tense. She looked almost exactly like she had when he suggested they duel: ready to run but frozen in place. If that made any sense. He wasn't really sure.

In these moments, though, it just… did.

Realizing that - if he kept acting like he usually did - Maya would probably panic again, Judai backed down. Though he still insisted, "Maya, I just want to know if you're okay. You know?"

Maya blinked, looking confused, yet she still didn't relax. "Y-you're…not gonna…"

"Do something that scares you like that? No," Judai replied softly. "I already forced you to duel; why should I make it worse?"

His new friend blinked a few times more, like she didn't understand what Judai was saying. But, finally, she relaxed and straightened out her clothes. "It's just…" She sighed and looked away with a frown. "I don't want you guys to feel like you have to look out for me. And here you are, doing exactly what I feared: worrying about me."

"Of course I'm worried about you, Maya," he replied. "You're my friend, and you're sad. I wanna help you feel better, 'specially since it was my fault."

Maya quickly shook her head. "No, it's not your fault!" she insisted with lots of worry in her voice.

"It is," Judai argued. "I made you duel when you said you didn't want to, and it brought up bad memories."

She shrugged and moved her right foot slightly. "Th-they weren't that…bad," she mumbled, and her eyes looked towards the dirt. "A-and if I just read for a bit, it'll be…f-fine."

Something about the way Maya looked and how she said that made Judai not believe her. He thought about something else they could do, and for some reason he thought of Hassleberry bringing up how he exercised when he wasn't feeling well. Maya had never said anything particularly bad about physical activities, so maybe that would help her out.

"Well, why don't we ask Ms. Midori if we can go to the gym?" he suggested. Maya looked back at him curiously. "I'm pretty sure Chazz didn't even bother to show you around; he hates just looking at the place."

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. "But you'll be skipping class!" she cried. "I already made Chazz skip-"

"But wasn't Chazz told to?" Judai interrupted. Maya waved her hands frantically, but the brown-haired duelist simply grabbed one of her wrists and began to drag her towards the school. "Come on, let's go speak to her anyway. We have time to kill before class." He looked back at Maya and grinned. "But I bet anything she'll say yes."

…

"No."

Judai groaned loudly, tipping his head back dramatically. The Slifer headmaster didn't flinch, continuing to read through the papers on her desk. "But _whyyyyy_?" he whined. "Chazz was able to skip class!"

"At least he doesn't fall asleep on me," Ms. Midori commented. She raised her amber eyes up at him. "Mr. Yuki, why should I let you skip class when you don't even pay attention to my lectures? Or anyone else's for that matter."

"I-I'm sorry!" Maya suddenly exclaimed before Judai could reply. "H-he figured that we should explore the gym because I need to. But I can just go to the library. I'll feel better just reading books, trust me."

Ms. Midori stopped reading and actually raised her head. After staring at her for a bit, she looked to Judai. "'Feel better'?" she repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Wait hold on I didn't mean-"

Their headmaster held up her hand, forcing Maya to stop her rambling. She then told Judai to explain what had happened. "And not just 'we want to go to the gym'," she stated.

Judai scratched his cheek sheepishly. "Probably shouldn't have started like that, huh?"

"Yes, you shouldn't have."

"Right." Judai took a breath. "So after last period I ran out as fast as I could, 'cause I wanted to help show Maya around campus. Anything's better than class- Ms. Midori, please don't stare at me like that! Mr. Shunji is so booooooring! Besides, wouldn't you want to walk around after sitting in a chair for two hours?

"Anyway, I ran towards the entrance, and I heard Maya and Chazz. Guess they were arguing about something, but it's really not important. I suggested we go into the Slifer field, and that gave me the idea to duel. But Maya didn't want to duel. Like, _really_ didn't want to duel. I've never seen anyone who didn't want to duel as badly as she did. But then Chazz yelled at her, and she ran to grab her deck. And, well, I _really_ wanted to duel, so I just let her go.

"When she came back, we started dueling, and I thought she did pretty good. She just started out with a not-so-great hand, and made a mistake with one of her traps. Then, once she got a new hand, Maya was _rocking _it out there. You should have seen it, Ms. Midori! Warrior Angel was _so_ cool! And she had Lightning Vortex that took out my Rampart Blaster so that I couldn't attack her directly anymore! Oo, and guess what? She has Heart of the Maiden! I had only heard of that card; I'd never seen it. So that was awesome!

"…But then, she just… Well, I don't know what, but she started calling me a bully, saying she had seen my type before or something, and that she wouldn't fall for it again. So she tried to totally wipe me out in one attack, and I almost lost. And then she started crying and yelling and I didn't know what to do because she just seemed so scared. For the first time, Ms. Midori, I actually regretted asking someone to duel. 'Cause, I always duel for fun.

"And Maya wasn't having fun. And it just got worse.

"I ended up winning, and Maya fell to her knees and started calling herself a loser, and her eyes were wide and staring at nothing and…and… I just felt _awful_.

"But that wasn't the end of it, and it just got _worse_.

"My friends and I, we brought Maya back to Chazz's room, and she told us about her childhood. And she was crying more and she was so hurt, and then once she was done she walked out. Chazz told me not to go after her; he said I wouldn't make her feel better. And Daichi just thought I should give her time because he said that helps, but…

"But I couldn't just sit around after all of that! It was all my fault, because I just ignored her when she said no! So I decided that I would help her, no matter what! And I think the best way to do that, Ms. Midori, is for us to go to the gym!"

Ms. Midori looked on calmly, listening to everything Judai had to say. But before she could reply, Maya shouted, "It's not your fault! I told you this, Judai!"

"Then why were you so scared?" he countered. "Why were you crying and bringing up your bullies during _our_ duel? Maya, I made you think of those guys and all of that other stuff, so it _is_ my fault."

"And to make it up to me, you're skipping class when you _absolutely can't afford to_?!" Maya cried. "This is _exactly _why I was going to leave!"

"Leave?" Judai and Ms. Midori repeated, both of them startled.

Realizing she slipped up, Maya slapped her hands over her mouth and shook her head quickly. "Um, f-forget what I just said," she told them, slightly muffled.

"Maya, you can't," Judai pleaded. "You just _got_ here. You didn't even start classes. If you stay, things'll get better."

"Not if you skip class for me," Maya argued, her hands now at her sides in frustration.

Alright, so she was a firm believer in school. That was clear. And Judai was not. That was also clear. So normally, he would just leave the schooling to the school people. But - for the first time in his life _ever_ \- he turned to his teacher and proclaimed, "What's the assignment?! Let me make it up over the weekend! I'll have it turned in by Monday, trust me!"

Ms. Midori shot straight up in her chair, blinking her wide eyes as she asked, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Well that's the best way for us to go to the gym during class, right?" Judai pointed out with determination. "So I'll do it, because I want to help Maya, no matter what!"

Maya and Ms. Midori stared at him for a few moments before the headmaster hummed. "You promise that I will be seeing a three to five page essay on the video I'll send you by class on Monday?" she questioned.

Judai whined on the inside at the mention of an essay, but he nodded and exclaimed, "I'll do it!"

"I- I'll help him!" Maya offered. Judai turned to look at her, finding that she seemed just as determined as he was. "I… I probably won't understand anything in the video since it's probably about dueling, but I can try."

Ms. Midori looked between the two students, and then she closed her eyes in thought. Judai and Maya stood in front of her, waiting for an answer, with Maya clearly getting more and more nervous as time moved on. The brown-haired duelist wanted to say something to make her feel better, but he kept his mouth shut since he was known for saying the wrong thing and making the situation worse. But then, after what felt like an _eternity_, their headmaster breathed in and said,

"Yes."

Despite being the one who had insisted that Ms. Midori would agree, Judai was the one most taken aback. "Huh?"

"Seriously?" the headmaster sighed. "You go through all this trouble of convincing me to let you skip class, and when I agree to it you're confused?" She pulled out a slip of paper and began to write on it. "However, I do agree with you, Mr. Yuki. Physical activity is usually a better way to destress." She glanced at Maya. "Especially since I feel the library won't help as much as you say, Ms. Sato."

Maya shuffled her feet, and her eyes darted around the room. "Thank you so much, Ms. Midori!" Judai exclaimed, glad that he had been right.

"You better be in the gym for the entire period, understand?" she instructed as she signed the paper. Then she handed it to Judai. "And I also expect that essay like you promise. Failure to do so will mean I will confiscate your deck for a whole week, and the only time you will be allowed to duel is when we do so in class, _if_ I feel like you have earned the right. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Yuki?"

_No dueling for a full week?! Man, Ms. Midori is __**nothing**_ _like Daitokuji, that's for sure, _Judai told himself for what had to be the thousandth time since the new semester had started. "Yeah, I'll do it, don't worry," he assured, even if there were plenty of other things he would rather do.

Like duel.

Why did they even need homework in the first place? Wasn't this a school for dueling?

"Ms. Hibiki…" Maya mumbled as she bowed deeply. "Thank you… Thank you so much."

Ms. Midori nodded. "Just focus on your mental health, Ms. Sato," she instructed. "You only have three days before your semester begins, and I'm sure both of us would like as few problems as possible."

"R-right," Maya nervously agreed.

"She'll be fine, Ms. Midori!" Judai assured. "My friends and I will have her back!"

"I don't doubt it," the headmaster stated. "Now get going, you two."

"Yes, ma'am!" they replied enthusiastically.

Well, at least, Judai was enthusiastic. Maya sounded kind of nervous.

Though that was probably just normal for her.

Sadly.

The two teens left the room, and once they were walking in the hallway Judai turned to Maya and grinned. "See, I told you she'd say yes," he said.

Maya looked at him and slowly blinked a few times before she sighed. "You're very confusing," she muttered. Judai grinned wider with a laugh, and Maya sighed again. "But… Well, thank you for offering this to me… Even though I kept rejecting you. It…means a lot that you care."

"Of course!" Judai exclaimed. He quickly pulled her into a side hug, getting a squeak out of her. "Now come on, I didn't agree to a three page essay just so we could walk down the hallway for hours."

Maya blinked, and then she looked back. "We passed the staircase," she muttered. "Whoops." Judai laughed again.

They quickly made their way to the gym, passing by a few students who were heading to class. Some of them waved hi to Judai, to which he grinned and waved back. Some greeted Maya, noting that she was new, and she would respond with a polite but quick dip of her head. A few others made comments about "Slifer Slackers", and every time Maya looked like she was about to panic, but then Judai would show her the signed pass and smile, and she would breath a little before focusing on their path again.

Or, trying to.

"Why do they call us slackers?" Maya quietly asked after the fifth or sixth time. Judai wasn't sure; he had stopped caring.

"It's just 'cause we're the 'loser' house, you know?" he answered with a shrug. Then he winked at her. "But I think they're just jealous 'cause I'm the best duelist and I'm not in the 'best' dorm."

"You're _actually_ the best duelist?" He nodded eagerly. "Then why duel _me_?!" Maya cried.

"Because duels are supposed to be fun!" Judai exclaimed. "And I also think they're one of the best ways to understand someone. Like, to me, you're someone who's gentle and caring, but you can totally kick butt when you need to!"

Maya didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I think you're severely overestimating my abilities," she finally said, and she began to walk with more purpose.

But Judai kept pace with her. "Give yourself more credit, Maya. When you got into the duel, you _really_ got into it," he countered. Maya stayed silent, and Judai figured it was best to move on. "Hey, let's pick up the pace. Class is about to start, and I'd like to keep my deck for the next week."

His new friend smiled slightly. "Ms. Hibiki doesn't mess around, does she?" she noted.

"Like you wouldn't _believe_!" Judai whined. Then, after a moment, he smiled. "I bet she'll like you, though."

She denied it with a face that was as red as their jackets.

Within a few minutes, they were at the gym. "I'm sure Chazz at least told you what sports you can play," Judai stated as they walked in. "I mean, he did… Right?"

"Yeah," she told him. "He said there was tennis, and I'm…interested. Is that okay?"

Personally, Judai would have rather played baseball, but this was about her. "Of course!" he assured. "I'll show you where the courts are!"

He led them towards the tennis section, and while Maya marveled at how big the gym was, Judai kept his eyes peeled for Ms. Emi. "Hey, there's someone else on the courts," Maya piped up. "I can hear someone hitting tennis balls."

"That might be Ms. Emi. She's the gym instructor," Judai stated. "I was looking for her, anyway. She can help us get some tennis equipment." Maya nodded.

They quickly made their way to the entryway, and when they stopped, Judai realized that - while, yes, Ms. Emi was there - the person hitting the tennis balls was actually Ichiya Osaka the tennis coach. Judai smiled at the extra help and ran to the two adults, Maya on his heels.

"Hey, Ms. Emi!" he called out.

Mr. Ichiya stopped his swing as they looked to the teens. "Judai, I know you like to be friendly, but you could _try_ being a little more formal with us," Ms. Emi sighed, but she had a smile on her face. Judai grinned. Then Ms. Emi noticed Maya. "Now, who is this young lady?"

"Oh, um, I-I'm Maya Sato," Maya greeted nervously. "Ms. Hibiki let us be here for the period; we… We have a note to prove it, if you need it…"

The athletic man laughed. "Have a case of the jitters, do we?" he observed. "Well, we'll make sure those are gone by dinner time. I'm Ichiya Osaka, and this is Emi Ayukawa. She was just helping me with my technique, but we can stop that so she can get you a uniform."

"That… That would be nice," Maya said. "Thank you, Ms. Ayukawa."

"No problem," the Obelisk teacher responded with a bigger smile. Maya blushed. "I'll show you to the locker room."

The two ladies walked off, and Judai showed Mr. Ichiya the note for proof. "Are you here to get some exercise too, Judai?" the man asked.

"Nah, tennis isn't my thing," Judai brushed off. "Last time I tried, I hit Dr. de Medici in the eye. That was a fun day."

"Come on, boy, that was over a year ago," Mr. Ichiya chuckled. "Besides, you're not gonna get a workout just drawing cards. I can teach you how to control your swing, you know." Judai just shrugged.

A few minutes later, Ms. Emi led Maya back onto the courts, the Slifer girl now in a P.E. uniform without the jacket and her thick hair up in a ponytail. "Ichiya, Maya and I discussed if she would mind you being her opponent, and she said it would be okay," the teacher explained. "Would that be fine with you?"

"I always enjoy a few good rounds," Mr. Ichiya agreed enthusiastically. "Maya, are you ready to work up a sweat?" Maya nodded.

Ms. Emi and Judai stood off to the side as the two players took their places at opposite ends of the court. "Here you are, Maya, you're serving first," Ms. Emi stated, tossing her a ball.

Maya fumbled it for a couple of seconds, but ultimately caught it. "You've got this, Maya!" Judai encouraged.

"Show me what you got!" Mr. Ichiya exclaimed.

"Al… Alright." Maya breathed in and out, then bounced the ball twice. She paused to look at the tennis coach, and he nodded with a smile. Another moment passed, and then she threw the ball into the air.

The result of the ball hitting the racket could only be described as a _**SMASH**_.

It zoomed right over the net, bounced on the ground, and went out of bounds before anyone could blink. The ball rolled to Mr. Ichiya's feet, but he didn't pick it up for a few moments. He just stared at Maya, which Judai could tell was beginning to make her extremely nervous. So, he did the best thing he knew to do.

Celebrate.

"That was _awesome_!" he shouted with glee, catching Maya's attention. "I told you that you could kick butt!"

"Th-that was for dueling!" Maya denied, blushing furiously.

"No, that's what I know about you _thanks_ to dueling!" Judai corrected. "I didn't know you were good at tennis. The way you hit the ball was so cool!"

"It was just a serve!" she argued.

"Then let's play an actual game," Mr. Ichiya suggested, bringing their focus back to him. He was smiling again, the tennis ball in his hand. "You were so nervous I thought you barely knew how to play. But after seeing that arm of yours, I think this match just got interesting."

Maya squeaked quietly. "I don't…think it'll be _interesting_…" she muttered.

Mr. Ichiya just smiled bigger. "Let's prove that, then." He tossed her the ball. "Come on, Maya, let's go at it. My team's been getting lazy ever since Mitsuru left, so I haven't had a good match in a while. Light that spark, will you?"

"I'll… I'll try," Maya offered.

Once again, Maya served the ball with a power swing, but this time Mr. Ichiya was ready. He hit it back easily, and Maya had to run to the opposite side of the court to reach it. She almost lost her footing when she sent it back, but she quickly recovered. The coach hit it back again, and then the girl hit it back, and again and again and again and again. Judai had never really watched a tennis match, even when he was in P.E.

But he could honestly say this was the best tennis match he had seen in his life.

"Wow, they're doing so amazing!" Judai cheered, even as the rally ended when Mr. Ichiya was able to get the ball past Maya.

"They really are," Ms. Emi agreed. She watched Maya pick the ball up and serve it a third time. "Ichiya always has good form, but I'm extremely impressed by your friend, Judai. When the two of you walked in, she was a nervous wreck; you didn't even have to show me the note and I would have believed this is for emotional support. And yeah, you can still see that she's still shaky with the way she moves around the court. But her power and speed are amazing."

"I knew she would be," Judai stated with a grin. "Maya just needs to get in the zone and then she's a force to be reckoned with."

Ms. Emi laughed lightly. "Well, I'm not surprised you think that," she commented. "I can see it, though. But I have a feeling our new friend doesn't feel the same way."

"That's why me and the rest of Slifer are gonna be there for her," the teen told her confidently. "We're gonna make sure one day she can see what we do."

The woman grinned. "I'd like to see that."

They watched as the two players finished up a match or two; Judai didn't really understand how the scoring worked in tennis, so he just kind of took their word for it when they said they had played full matches. By the time they were done, apparently both of them had each won a match, though Judai never figured out how. Still, he cheered for Maya all the same, whether she did good or bad. And it made her smile constantly, so he had no complaints.

"Well done, Maya!" Mr. Ichiya complimented as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "You really know how to duke it out."

"Thank you," Maya replied, breathing evenly. Judai was excited for her; even though she was sweating too and flushed from the exercise, she looked so relaxed! "I used to play with my family all the time, but eventually they stopped because they thought I was too good."

"They're not wrong," the coach chuckled.

"Yeah, Maya, you're really awesome!" Judai exclaimed once more. Maya smiled widely, and he beamed. Her smiles were amazing; she needed to wear them more.

"Hey Judai, why don't you go for a rally or two?" Mr. Ichiya suddenly brought up. "Get that blood pumping from something other than adrenaline, you know?"

"He doesn't have to, Mr. Osaka," Maya told him. "I don't want to force him to do anything he doesn't want to do."

That hit Judai hard; about an hour ago, he had forced _Maya_ into something she didn't want to do, and when given the opportunity to do the same thing to _him_, she didn't go through with it. Then he realized she had done the same thing when they were talking to Ms. Midori by offering to help Judai with his essay.

And maybe, just like accepting to write the essay at all, maybe he could play one tennis match.

Game.

Whatever it was called.

"Nah, it's okay Maya," Judai piped up with a smile. "I can play a bit of tennis."

"Are you sure?" Maya asked.

"Yep!" he exclaimed with a thumbs-up. "I'm not all that good, but I'll do my best!"

Maya's light yellow eyes searched him, though he wasn't entirely sure what for or why. He just waited for her to finish whatever she was doing, and then she nodded. "Sure, since you want to," she agreed.

"Great!" Judai cheered.

Mr. Ichiya grinned as he handed Judai his tennis racket. "Go for it, kid!" he encouraged. The duelist nodded enthusiastically.

The two teens took their places on the court, with Judai given the ball to serve. It had been a while since he had participated because he only ever played tennis in P.E., and the Society of Light had basically put classes on hold. Still, he figured he would have _something_ of a shot with Maya having played quite a bit; she was probably somewhat tired. So, with confidence, Judai threw the ball up and hit it towards his new friend.

But Maya surprised him with one more incredibly powerful hit.

Right to his nose.

The familiar sting of a broken bone seared him as he cradled his free left hand under his nose to catch the blood. Maya panicked and sprinted over to his side, and Judai saw her wide shaky eyes. "Oh my God Judai are you alright I'm so sorry I didn't mean to hit you does it hurt can I do any-"

"Maya, ssh, ssh, it's okay," Ms. Emi hushed, joining them as well with a med kit in hand. "It was an accident."

"Yeah," Judai agreed, even if it hurts a little. "Besides, now I can say I've broken every bone except for my spine and skull!"

When Maya went chalk white, he realized that was the wrong thing to say.

"The sad thing is that I completely believe you," Ms. Emi sighed as she took out an ice pack. "Your poor parents. I'm surprised they let you out of the house without fifty pounds of padding."

"You know, my mom threatened that once," Judai replied.

"That's it, mister - to my office," the Obelisk teacher directed, forcing him to start walking with her. She handed him the ice pack and instructed him to lightly hold it against his nose; she also ignored his whining when he did. "We're gonna get you fixed up, and then I'm going to try and find a way to stop you from being such a trouble magnet."

"M-Ms. Ayukawa, l-let me help!" Maya offered, quickly following them. "Th-this is my fault, I-I should-"

"Maya, I appreciate it, but I'm the school's nurse for a reason," Ms. Emi interrupted. "I'm a professional at fixing people up, so this isn't new."

Maya frowned, still looking guilty and small. Judai didn't want her to feel bad or useless, though, so he tried really hard to quickly think of an idea. One eventually sprang to mind, and he grinned at the purple-haired girl. "You can still come with us, Maya," he stated. "We're hanging out, remember? I'm not gonna let some dumb broken nose stop that."

"E… Even though it's my fault?" she questioned quietly.

With a happy huff, Judai pulled her to his side with his free arm. "Just come with me, okay? I want you to be there, isn't that enough?"

She was silent for a minute or so as the three walked out of the gym, with Mr. Ichiya calling out a goodbye as they left. Then, she whispered a sigh, "You truly are something else."

Judai looked at her, ready to argue, but then he noticed the small smile she was trying to hide. He grinned even wider.

Only for his nose to start throbbing in pain, which got him groaning and the ladies scolding/worrying.

_Worth it, _Judai thought as Maya squeezed his hand and held the ice pack. _It's all gonna be worth it._


	7. Paranoia's Brought Me to My Knees

**"Anxiety" by Black Eyed Peas**

* * *

"Maya, what's wrong?" Asuka asked as the two studied Koharu in her full-length mirror. "Your outfit is great! I love the longer skirt. Kinda wish I had that option."

Her friend was right. Thanks to her design and measurements impressing Chancellor Samejima, she got to wear an outfit that she loved pretty much everything about. Her vest was primarily red like Judai's instead of white with red highlights, which would have mirrored the Obelisk design. The black turtleneck tank top wasn't too tight around her neck, and the fabric was soft against her skin. And she wasn't wearing the standard short skirt the other girls had to wear, but rather a thigh length white skirt.

And yet…

"Why did I get elbow length gloves?" Koharu mumbled. "I designed a summer outfit _and_ a winter outfit, and the jacket is better for this time of year. The gloves are redundant."

Asuka gave her the most "are you serious" face she had seen in a long time.

"So let me get this straight," she stated, deadpan. "You got to measure your own outfit, got to change the size of the skirt, and even got to make two different outfits - which, may I remind you, _you _told _me _the jacket is coming in two weeks - and you're upset by _gloves_."

"…Yes?" was the unsure reply.

The blonde pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, at least you have a vision," she sighed. Then she ran both of her hands through her hair and smiled. "Hey though, this means you're an official student now. How do you feel?"

It never really occurred to Koharu that having the uniform meant she was that much closer to attending classes. One day closer, in fact. To think that Thursday was actually three days ago, it felt like too much had happened for that to be true. And now Monday was almost upon them.

In other words, the first time she would be in an actual classroom since early middle school.

Koharu took a deep breath.

"You're gonna be in class with me… Right?" she questioned as she continued to breathe evenly.

Asuka gave her a comforting, friendly smile as she gently put her hands on Koharu's shoulders. "Of course I will," she assured. "We'll sit together, and I'll make sure you get through class a-okay. Promise."

"Thanks, Asuka," Koharu said. "You're a good friend."

"I should hope so," Asuka chuckled. "Now, let's get going to the card shop. You wanted to see what Ms. Tome had in stock so you could prepare for class, yeah?"

"Why does Ms. Hibiki suddenly want me in Deck Composition?" the purple-haired girl whined. "It makes no sense. I'm in _Slifer_."

Her shoulders were squeezed lightly. "Ms. Hibiki said she had watched your duel with Judai from the recording on the cameras, right?" Asuka reminded. "That woman wouldn't consider putting you in her class if she didn't believe in you, trust me."

"You really think that?" Koharu inquired.

"With how seriously Ms. Hibiki takes her job, I'm surprised she's not an Obelisk teacher."

But… Maybe that's what made her unique, that she was willing to be in charge of the students everyone else thought weren't good enough to consider.

Even Koharu.

"I guess you have a point," she agreed, remembering how Ms. Hibiki had declared that she was sending a recommendation for Koharu's switch into Deck Composition to Kaiba with no argument in her tone the night before. Ren and Kazuma - while not part of the "main crew" as Sho called themselves - had become good enough friends with Koharu to be excited of her promotion when she told them. Though they weren't as excited as Judai, who was not only proud of her class change, but ecstatic that they were sharing another class together.

"Then we should get going, we don't have all day," Asuka directed, walking out the door. Koharu nodded, putting on her black slip-ons and quickly followed her friend.

"Thank you for coming to my dorm, by the way," Koharu stated as she locked her door. "I… I'm not sure if I'd be comfortable going into the Obelisk dorms."

"No problem, I completely understand," the blonde replied. "There are some girls here who can be _really_ rude, even to each other. Ms. Ayukawa tries her best, but there's only so much she can do when she also has to run the nurse's office."

"Yeah," Koharu agreed. "Ms. Ayukawa is really nice, though. I wish all of Obelisk was like her."

"You're not the only one."

The two girls walked in silence after that, Koharu enjoying the slight breeze that was flowing across the island. She breathed in the air, feeling relaxed from the smell of trees and sea salt. It was such a contrast to the chaos that had been going on since Koharu had arrived on the island, and she took her time to soak it all in on their quiet-

_**BOOM!**_

Koharu screamed at the loud noise and almost tripped over a tree root in the process. "Wh-wh-what was _that_?!" she questioned as she whipped her head from side to side, trying to figure out the source.

Meanwhile, Asuka was calm as could be as she said, "Must be a duel."

"How can you be so calm, there was an _explosion_!" Koharu cried in hysterics.

Asuka shrugged. "You just get used to it," she replied.

"Used to it?!"

"Wanna check it out?"

The immediate response that came to mind was "_NO_", but Koharu held back her tongue for a moment. Asuka was right, explosions and other loud noises happened in duels quite often. And if Koharu was going to be a student, she figured it would be best to start absorbing everything she could before her classes began.

But before she could open her mouth to answer, Asuka added, "If you just want to get to the card shop, that's okay, too. Whatever you want to do."

Koharu blinked a couple times, then looked down at her shoes as she thought some more. A few seconds later, after another - albeit smaller - explosion went off, Koharu looked back up and gave a tentative nod.

"Let's go watch," she decided quietly.

Asuka smiled.

They quickly made their way to the impromptu duel arena (at least, Asuka said she always called the outdoor clearings impromptu arenas) to find that they weren't the only ones who had come to watch, as quite a handful of Ras sat comfortably in the grass as they spectated. They were silent but captivated, focusing more on the duel than talking amongst themselves on whatever had happened previously. Koharu was debating on whether to ask one of them about the previous move, but one of the participating duelists spoke up before she could.

"Sorry, but you made the mistake of destroying my Phantom Beast Cross-Wing," a brown-haired Ra stated. "Because when it's in the Graveyard, all Phantom Beast monsters gain an extra 300 attack. Which gives Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast a total of 2400 Attack Points!" The holographic twin-headed lion roared as its muscles bulged, and Koharu gulped at its intimidating stature. "Now Chimera, destroy Drillroid and end this duel!" His monster lunged, and Koharu turned her head to follow its path-

_Wait, he's dueling Sho?_

Sho, meanwhile - despite staring down a vicious beast - wasn't afraid. In fact, he had a smirk on his face. "Sorry, but _you _made the mistake of forgetting about Decoyroid!" he countered. His opponent grunted as the little toy car zoomed in front of the cartoony drill monster, taking the blow for it instead. "And since you're out of cards in your hand, you're out of tricks. Not to mention you already banished all of your Thunder-Pegasi, right?"

"I still have all of my Life Points, Sho!" the other Ra declared. "There's not a monster in your deck that can take me out in one go!"

Sho drew his next card and looked at it, and his smirk widened. "Or, there wasn't," he replied confidently. His opponent growled. "First I'll play the spell Block Attack, forcing your Chimera into Defense Mode!"

"Wait, wouldn't that make it harder for Sho to win?" Koharu asked Asuka as the two-headed beast dropped to a crouch.

"A Vehicroid deck can be seen as a Beatdown deck, but instead of completely relying on high attack stats, they mostly rely on piercing damage while a monster is in Defense Mode," Asuka explained.

"…What?"

"Basically, Sho uses his opponent's defending monsters to his advantage in order to make really heavy hits," the blonde clarified.

Koharu blinked, and then sighed. "I think I get it, but I don't quite understand it, either," she mumbled. Asuka gave her a reassuring smile, but Koharu ignored it. "This is why I should be in Basics."

"Basics is a middle school class, why would-" The boy cut himself off, and Koharu turned to find one of the Ras was now observing her instead of the duel. She squeaked and hid behind Asuka.

"Hey pal, watch the duel!" Asuka snapped.

"Y-yes ma'am!" the Ra complied.

"Oh, hey Asuka! Hey Maya!" Sho greeted happily. Koharu poked her head out to see Sho grinning. "I didn't see you there! Ready to watch me win this duel?"

"In your dreams, Sho!" his opponent barked.

The blue-haired duelist wasn't fazed; he just kept grinning. "That's what you think," he said. "But I just pulled the last card I need: Power Bond!"

There was a round of surprised gasps, and Koharu was confused. "Um, is that a powerful card?" she questioned.

"It's a form of Polymerization that doubles the Attack of Sho's fused monster," Asuka replied.

"Whoa. That does sound powerful." Koharu looked back at the duel. "So, which monster is he fusing?"

The blue-haired duelist giggled cheekily. "You'll find out, I'm about to summon it!"

A round of "LAME" came out from the Ras, and one of them even whispered, "I knew we shouldn't have let him watch that video." Sho took the comments in stride, grinning and giggling through the whole thing without a care.

"Combining Drillroid, Steamroid, and Submarineroid, I summon Super Vehicroid Jumbo Drill in Attack Mode!" The cartoonish drill was replaced with a humongous one with sharp clawed-hands, and the purple-haired girl found herself in awe. "Thanks to Power Bond, its Attack goes from 3000 to 6000. Against Chimera's 1800 Defense, that's enough to wipe out your Life Points and then some!"

Sho's opponent braced himself as the fused monster barreled through Chimera and him, dropping his Life Points to zero in one fell swoop. The Ra looked at his Duel Disk and then groaned. "Damn it, not again!" he cried as Sho celebrated his victory. "Celebrate all you want, but next time I _am_ winning! Understand?!"

"I'll duel you anytime for the teaching spot, Hideaki!" Sho replied.

"…What," Asuka said, deadpan.

"Daichi got tired of us asking him about Deck Types," one of the spectating Ras explained. "Apparently we burned through his seemingly infinite patience. So every time we get together to have our study session, it always begins with Sho and Hideaki dueling on who gets to lead it."

Asuka blinked, and then sighed. "There have been dumber reasons for dueling," she stated.

"Also-" All of the Ras looked to Koharu, most of them with questioning gazes, and she gulped. "W… W-well… Can't you guys…l-lead together?" she pointed out.

"Then we wouldn't see who's the better leader!" Sho answered pridefully.

"…Okay," Koharu and Asuka replied in tandem, the former confused and unsure while the latter looked on in motherly annoyance.

"So, who's the new girl?" Hideaki asked, making Koharu freeze up.

"Oh yeah, this is Maya!" Sho introduced with enthusiasm. "She's a new student as of today! Your outfit looks really nice, by the way."

"Um… Th-thanks," Koharu responded, blushing.

Sho continued on, unfazed by her reaction. "These are some of my classmates in my Deck Type class," he told her. "They're really cool! This is-"

"You sure you want to be in Slifer?" a strawberry blond-haired Ra interrupted with an eyebrow raised. A few other Ras raised up agreements.

Asuka glared at him. "Is that a problem for you?" she questioned coldly.

"I mean, I personally don't think it's a problem," he stated with a shrug. "But you do know that might bring some negative attention to you." Koharu felt herself shrink as self-doubt began to worm its way into her brain.

"Yeah, I don't know how good of an idea this is," another Ra agreed, and Koharu shrunk again. "It shouldn't be too late to change to Obelisk; since you're a girl it wouldn't be a problem-"

"I think Maya is really brave!" Sho cut in with confidence and determination. Koharu felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder, and she looked to Asuka, who nodded and smiled softly. The grounding gaze the blonde gave her made Koharu finally realize she was tense, and she breathed out as she tried to relax. "She's not taking the easy way out by jumping into Obelisk just because she's a girl, and I admire her for it! So don't tell her what she should do, okay?"

"As Sho's friends, the least you could do is keep your rude comments to yourselves," Asuka scolded.

The Ras still seemed uncertain, but they backed down with accepting nods. "Besides, if she's Sho's friend, then she's probably Judai's friend, and that guy wouldn't let anyone have a bad day," Hideaki brought up.

"He definitely won't!" Sho exclaimed.

The strawberry blond sighed. "I guess that's true," he conceded. "Well, good luck then, Maya. See you around." The other Ras chimed in as well, and began to walk off.

"Don't worry about them, Maya," Sho told Koharu. She nodded slowly, and that was enough to get the blue-haired duelist to grin. "Have a great day! I'll see you guys at dinner tonight." With that, he ran after his study group, waving goodbye as he did.

"Well, that was an interesting distraction," Asuka commented. She turned towards the way they had come. "Let's get to the card shop."

"But…" Asuka stopped, humming questioningly. Koharu breathed out her nose. "Do you… Do you think they're right?" she asked nervously. "Should I just…go to Obelisk instead?"

"Nah, I think you're fine right where you are," the blonde answered without hesitation. "Sho's right; him, me, Judai, Hassleberry, Daichi, we're all right behind you whenever you need us."

"And… And Chazz?" Koharu couldn't help asking.

Asuka sighed. "He's a special case," she replied. "He'll say things that are condescending, but he does that to almost everyone. Don't take them to heart. But if it gets too much, just tell me and I'll make sure he cools it, okay?"

"Do you think he'll listen?"

"Not the first time, I bet, but I'll make him listen if he doesn't stop."

"You have that kind of power?"

There was a spark of confidence in Asuka's posture and voice as she stated, "With him, you bet."

Koharu blinked. "Do I… wanna know what that means?" she inquired.

"Oh yeah," Asuka chuckled. "Chazz thinks he's all that and a bag of chips, but believe me, he's the biggest dork on campus. Wanna know how he's in Slifer? I promise, it's really funny."

"I feel like this is some form of bullying," the purple-haired girl noted as she and Asuka began walking.

"Not bullying, teasing," the Obelisk corrected. "He more than deserves it, especially since it all started with him being a spoiled brat. See, right from the start he was Dr. de Medici's favorite student, but…"

As the two girls walked along the path, Koharu found herself starting to smile and enjoy the stories Asuka told about her friends, even when they began to stray away from Chazz. The new student started to calm down as she laughed and asked questions and conversed with the blonde.

And in the back of her mind, she began to agree the following day would definitely be a good one.

…

"Uh, _excuse _me Slifer Slacker, what are _you_ doing here?" an Obelisk girl spat. Koharu tried to respond, but she was so nervous under the condescending glare she could barely string together a single word. "Answer me, loser!"

"Hey, don't call her that!" Asuka snapped, drawing their attention to the blonde, who looked more stern than angry. Though maybe she was, and she was just really good at masking it; Koharu still didn't know. "She's with me, Hikari, so let her through."

The girl sneered but scooted her chair out of the isle, allowing Koharu to pass so she could take her seat for class. "What idiot _chooses_ to be in Slifer?" she heard the Obelisk hiss.

"Babe, don't be so antagonistic," the boy next to her soothed.

"_Who _are you dating?!" his girlfriend retorted. Flustered, he immediately began to assure it was her, only ever her and praised her for being amazing and perfect.

Meanwhile, Koharu plopped into the chair next to Asuka and tried to make herself as small as possible.

"Asuka, I can't do this," she whispered, gripping onto the strap of her brown messenger bag so hard her knuckles turned white.

"Of course you can, Maya," the blonde encouraged gently.

Koharu tried to think of something to say, but before she did, someone piped up, "Are you sure about this, Asuka?"

The blonde glared, and Koharu followed her gaze to find two more Obelisk girls: one with light brown eyes and short rustic-brown hair, and the other with dark brown eyes and black hair in pigtails. Koharu gulped at their unwavering concerned gazes that she was fairly certain weren't concern for her.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I be, Momoe?" Asuka replied curtly.

The two girls looked at each other with worried hums, and then the brown-haired girl looked at Asuka again. "It's just… Do you really think it's a smart idea to let a Slifer sit here?"

"I-I'll leave," Koharu declared, ready to stand up.

But Asuka gently put a hand on Koharu's shoulder and kept her firmly planted in her seat. "Junko, that was seriously rude," Asuka scolded. "So what if she's a Slifer? You haven't had problems with Sho other than you think he can be a bit of a dork, and I seem to remember the two of you scheming _something _about Judai and I over this past winter break, _right_?"

"…You're not over that, are you?" the black-haired girl - Momoe, Koharu deduced - mumbled.

"No."

"Okay, but what do you think the teacher's gonna say?" Junko brought up.

"They shouldn't say anything, it's an _English _class," Asuka retorted. "Look, even then, I promised Maya I'd be with her through class. So I'm following through with that, and you two aren't stopping me."

Once again, the two girls turned to each other, still doubtful. Koharu looked to Asuka, frowning deeply. "Asuka… I-It'd be fine if they think I should move," she muttered. "Judai and Ren… They're here so I can sit with them and they… They seem like good friends of yours so I wouldn't-"

"Maya, no friend of mine - no matter how long I've known them - is going to be rude to any of my other friends, okay?" Asuka interrupted with conviction. "If they're worried about my reputation or whatever, that's on them. But I'm not gonna back down on my promise."

_How did I get so lucky and blessed? _Koharu thought. All she could do, though, was nod. Asuka smiled, but before she could say anything else, the door at the bottom of the auditorium opened. A man with a blond ponytail entered, and Asuka let out a noise that Koharu couldn't exactly place, though there might have been a tad bit of worry in it.

"Looks like Dr. de Medici is going to be our English teacher," Momoe stated quietly, and when Koharu eyed the black-haired girl, she saw her frowning a little.

Koharu gulped and looked back to Asuka once more. "Is… Is that bad?"

"Not necessarily," she replied. "Dr. de Medici is a pretty good teacher. But he can be… Well… A bit much." There was a pregnant pause. "For lack of better words."

After another few seconds of silence, Koharu shakily grabbed her notebook. "I'm just gonna…focus on notes," she mumbled. Asuka lightly squeezed her shoulder in what Koharu could only assume was an attempt at reassurance. It was…doing something, she supposed. "Yeah, that's what I'll do." She stared at her paper, waiting for the lecture to start.

"Slifer!" the man exclaimed harshly, causing Koharu to jump.

But she didn't raise her head since she was still trying to be as insignificant as possible. So for a moment, she assumed it was Judai or Ren he was referring to, but when neither of them said anything from their place at the top row, she raised her head slowly.

And when she met harsh gray eyes, she gulped down the feeling of bile that began to arise and started shaking even more.

"About time you looked me in the eye, Slacker," Dr. de Medici criticized. "Now, what do you think you're doing in the middle of my Obelisks?"

Immediately, without a word, Koharu shot up and started to make her way to exit the row, but she was stopped by Asuka's grasp on her forearm. "Dr. de Medici, it's not Maya's fault," the blonde stated confidently, as if whatever she was about to say would fix everything. "I invited her to sit with me."

"My dear Asuka," the teacher replied with a softer tone, "you know the rules of this school. All houses are in their own sections. If our new student here wanted to be in Obelisk, she should have thought about that beforehand."

At that, Koharu yanked her arm away from her friend, and despite the protests from Asuka she quickly ran just so class could start and everyone could move on from this. Except, the Obelisk girl from before decided to put her foot slightly in Koharu's path, causing her to trip and painfully thump onto the floor. Laughter, some quiet and others loud, rang throughout the auditorium.

"Such a clumsy little Slifer," Hikari snickered, despite her boyfriend's slight protests. "You should watch where you're going."

Koharu tucked into herself, unsure why she ever thought her first day of school could actually be a good day. _I… I should have just told Ms. Hibiki I really was leaving, _she thought, the bile still present. _Every day is going to be like this, I'm going to go through this all over again, I-_

A hand delicately folded into hers, like she was made of glass. Not that it wasn't an apt comparison; she did feel like she was going to shatter at any moment. Koharu slowly raised her head to find Judai - as she should have expected, not that it was a bad thing (definitely not) - with his warm, friendly, reassuring smile. Feeling just the tiniest bit more secure and the bile receding, Koharu tightened her grip a bit more, and then Judai helped her to her feet with the utmost care. Without another word, he led the purple-haired girl to where he and Ren were sitting.

Still…

"Judai," she whispered so quietly she wasn't even sure she heard it. But Judai turned his head slightly, intrigued. "I… I feel sick."

"You'll be alright," he promised just as softly. "Ren and I will make sure of it, okay?"

She pushed down the last of the feeling, took a deep breath, and nodded. "Y-Yeah, okay," she agreed.

They made it to the top row of the classroom and sat down quickly. Ren placed a comforting hand on Koharu's shoulder but glared at their teacher. The blond man either didn't notice or didn't care (though, based off the small snippet she got of his personality, Koharu had to assume it was the former) as he began introductions and a quick summary of the course, like the last minute or so hadn't ever occurred. On one hand, Koharu was grateful they didn't linger on it, but she was kind of hoping the Obelisks would at least get some sort of reprimanding.

_My wishful thinking might as well be the definition of insanity,_ Koharu thought with a sigh.

"Now that we know what we're doing for the rest of the semester, let's begin," Dr. de Medici instructed.

He then began to talk in English, and that was when Koharu noticed he had an Italian accent. She then began to wonder if English was his second or third language, and where Japanese and Italian placed. As she took notes on his lecture, she pondered the possibility that Japanese was actually not his native language, which then delved into what his nationality was. Koharu probably would have continued this train of thought had she not been poked in the shoulder. She turned to her right to find Judai looking extremely lost.

"Maya, what's he saying?" he asked. "I can't understand a word."

Koharu looked at him quizzically. "Wait, Judai, do you not know any English?" she questioned.

"Well, the _really _basic stuff," he replied. He huffed lightly with a slightly annoyed look. "But everyone always talks or just make me read this stuff. Can't we just use pictures? Those are easier."

Suddenly, everything about Judai's perceived laziness made sense. He was a visual learner, maybe even hands-on; no wonder Duel Monsters was the thing he was best at. She thought back to the video they watched for Judai's essay, realizing that he asked her questions of what the narrator had said because it flew over his head. Koharu had internally questioned why _he_ was asking _her_ questions on the topic of dueling, but with this new information it made her realize Judai had a hard time grasping spoken or written-out words.

"Do… Do you want to copy my notes?" Koharu offered. "I know it's not much better, but…"

"No, it would help out a lot," Judai assured with a grin. "If you don't mind." She shook her head, and he immediately began to look at her paper.

This lasted…not even a minute.

"Judai, you Slacker, _what _are you doing?" Dr. de Medici demanded, once again causing Koharu to jump.

"H-he said he di-didn't un-understand you, s-sir," Koharu stuttered quickly without even thinking, her shaking and the bile coming back with a vengeance. "S-so I thought-"

"Of course he doesn't understand," the teacher interrupted insultingly. "I haven't stepped into one class where he understands _anything_, or even attempts to try and learn. I will not have my other students - even if you are a troublemaking Slifer Slacker yourself - fall behind because Judai can't be bothered to learn on his own. You will not trade notes in my class, are we _clear_, Ms. Slifer?"

Koharu couldn't even find the words to speak; she just nodded quickly and slid down into her seat as laughter once again rang throughout the air. "What an absolute jackass," Ren snorted.

"R-Ren, do-don't say that too loud!" Koharu pleaded. "Y-You might get i-in trouble!" The other Slifer snorted again but didn't say another word as he and Judai coaxed her back upright and chased away the sick feeling in her throat once more.

Class soon resumed again, but Koharu found it hard to concentrate. Not only was she replaying all of Dr. de Medici's words, she also kept noticing Judai's failed attempts to focus on words he couldn't process. As the lecture trudged on, he began to nod off, and subtly Koharu tried to keep him awake with shakes and pokes. Judai would always smile at her, but it was clear that him being unable to understand the lesson was getting on his nerves. At a loss of what to do, Koharu sat in her seat feeling useless.

"Hey, it's okay," Judai assured when he noticed she wasn't taking notes, too busy being lost in her head. "You can catch me up after class."

Yes, but… "I hate that you're just sitting there, making his self fulfilling prophecy come true," she sighed sadly. "You're not dumb, you just learn differently, but Dr. de Medici won't even try to see that."

Judai laughed silently. "Don't worry about what he thinks about me, 'kay?" he replied. "I don't."

"Yeah, not many of us Slifers do," Ren piped up. "He's all hot air; let him steam away."

Saying that made her feel better would be a half truth at best, but she supposed that was better than nothing. "Alright," she stated. That seemed enough for the boys, judging from their smiles.

The lecture continued on, and Koharu focused more on it than Judai. Or, at least, she _tried_. But Judai continued to nod off, even though he seemed to be trying not to, maybe for her sake. Yet no matter how hard he tried, Judai couldn't keep up with the lecture.

Until, ultimately, he fell asleep.

Koharu internally panicked. Should she leave him like that? Should she hope he would wake back up on his own? Should she just wake him up herself? She eyed Dr. de Medici, finding that he was answering a question from someone who was sitting on the far left side of the room. Surely she could get away with quietly waking Judai up if their teacher was preoccupied with something else.

Surely.

With her decision made, she gently nudged Judai. But after a few seconds, Koharu realized he was a pretty heavy sleeper. His eyelids didn't twitch, and his even breathing didn't change. So she nudged him harder and faster, realizing she was most likely running low on time. There was only so long Dr. de Medici could stay distracted. Yet Judai continued to sleep. Feeling desperate, Koharu began to poke around his eyes.

"Come on, Judai, wake up," she whispered despairingly. "Please, _please_ wake up."

And then, he did.

With a _**loud**_ yawn.

Koharu froze.

"Is class over…" Judai's question died on his tongue as he turned to Koharu, and whatever she looked like had him frowning deeply and his eyes widening. "Oh no."

"_MS.. __**SLIFER**__!_"

The purple-haired student flinched harshly before shakily turning towards the teacher. His gray eyes were alit with fury, and his dangerous scowl took up most of his face. The terrified student opened her mouth to try and say something, _anything_ to quell his rage.

"I-I-I-I-I-I-"

"Three times, Ms. Slifer! _Three times_ you have interrupted my class, and it hasn't even been an _hour_!" Dr. de Medici yelled. "I understand if the three of you don't care about learning, but there are other students here who do, and I doubt they appreciate every time I have to stop and lecture you about behavior! Lost causes, all of you!"

The words hit Koharu so hard it felt like she actually got the wind knocked out of her.

_Lost cause, lost cause, lost cause._

"Maya…gotta breath…everything…"

But whoever was speaking was barely heard over the ever-growing mantra ringing in her head.

_Lost cause, lost cause, lost cause._

And the more it kept repeating, the louder it kept getting, and the sicker Koharu felt. She swallowed harshly, tasting the familiar, disgusting sting of bile as she desperately tried to push it back down once more. But this time, it wasn't going to leave. She could tell.

_Lost cause, lost cause, lost cause._

"Judai," she whispered, desperately trying not to heave (and barely hearing her own voice), "I'm… I'm going to the bathroom."

If he said anything, Koharu didn't hear it, but she felt the light squeeze on her hand before it went away. Taking that as permission to go, Koharu stood up and began to walk. She wasn't aware if Dr. de Medici noticed, or if the other students were laughing once more.

But they probably were

_Lost cause, lost cause, lost cause._

They kept repeating, over and over, and with no distractions other than trying to find the bathroom, Koharu couldn't keep the words at bay. And they kept getting louder, and _louder, and __**louder, and-**_

"_What a loser, that was barely a challenge," he snorted with sickening glee. "You didn't even last five minutes."_

"_Because I don't know what I'm doing, Raizo!" Koharu cried, the tears streaming down her face faster, which only added to his delight. "Teach me, I don't understand!"_

"_Only __**losers**_ _don't know how to play Duel Monsters," the boy snickered. "Why would I bother teaching a __**loser**__?"_

"_Then talk slower, I don't know what your cards do, please Raizo stop-"_

_She was shoved to the hard ground, with Raizo looming over her._

"_Talk slower? Why?" He grabbed a fistful of her hair and yanked her up so she was staring right at a Thunder Dragon card. "If you can't understand something as simple as Thunder Dragon, then you won't be able to understand anything." He shoved her back down, and swung his leg back. "Face it, loser, you're nothing but a lost __**cause**__!"_

_He kicked her in the stomach._

And Koharu threw up.

…

"Mr. Kaiba, we have a situation."

Of course this would be the first call of the day, of _course_.

And since it was coming from Isono, that could only mean one thing.

"Let me guess," Kaiba hissed. "Ms. Komatsu isn't in class?"

"Well, she was, but she just left," Isono explained. "She looked quite green, and I have a feeling she's heading for the bathroom. At least she didn't cause a scene on her way out."

Oh, at _least_. Good to know.

Never mind the fact the girl wasn't in class at the moment, skipping out on the lecture she needed to attend. The lecture that dozens upon _dozens _of parents reminded him over the past weekend was _crucial_. This, of course, being on top of foreign greedy bigwigs who had practically _hounded _him all week for one reason or another, along with scheduling a duel that was two months out because his opponent _insisted _that the planning was to be finished _now_.

Needless to say, Kaiba's weekend was not a relaxing one.

"You said the bathroom, right?" Kaiba questioned, fuming.

"I believe so," his assistant replied. "Are you going to bring her back?"

"I'm going to get her the hell out of my school."

There was a quick alarmed gasp. "Mr. Kaiba-"

Kaiba hung up and stormed off.

Only for his phone to go off once more.

"_WHAT_," he practically snarled when he answered.

A familiar, melodic, idiotic laugh came through his speaker. "Good morning to you too, Sunshine," the idiot happily greeted.

Kaiba stopped walking immediately, and he cursed himself for doing so (as he did every time; stupid idiot needed to stop influencing him like this). "Whatever it is, make it quick," he demanded.

"Mm, not sure I can make it quick," the other man stated. There was a faraway but still audiable squeak of a chair in the background; no doubt he was making himself comfortable with that stupid smile on his face. "I know that tone of voice. That's the tone that tells me you're about to do something you're gonna regret."

"I don't do regret," Kaiba argued.

"As you say," he brushed off with practiced ease. Kaiba snorted. "So, before you go yell at someone again, talk to me."

"Why should I?"

"Because poor Isono is clearly not getting the chance to, as usual."

The CEO snorted again. "He got his chance when he reported news I didn't want to hear," he responded.

There was a pause, another squeak of the chair, and then a disappointed sigh. "Please don't tell me the poor soul who's about to feel your wrath is a student," he begged.

"Then you shouldn't have called," Kaiba stated coldly, ready to hang up.

But the idiot had other plans. "No, you are _not_ hanging up on me, we need to _talk_ about this before you scare a kid and make this whole situation even worse for yourself."

"They're going to be scared of me anyway."

"Why? Because you're gonna bust through the door, glare at them, and have them shaking in their boots before you even say one word?"

"I'm talking to someone who does that even around Samejima so I don't see the point in doing anything else."

"Someone who…" The man muttered to himself before he gasped in realization. "The girl? Koharu Komatsu?"

He knew talking to the idiot about her was a bad idea but _noooo_, Mokuba insisted it would be a good thing to have him involved.

"Yes," Kaiba answered. Then he grunted. "Isono reported she walked out of class, so _I _have to straighten her out. Which means you-"

The chair hit the floor so harshly Kaiba could hear it clearly.

But not as much as the man's very angry shout.

"Seto Kaiba, are you about to go _yell at the girl with __**severe ANXIETY?!**_"

Kaiba was stunned into silence. Sure, it wasn't every day he heard the usually cheerful man so upset, and he should have known his good nature would clash with Kaiba's business approach to the situation. It happened plenty of times before.

But _this _upset?

"If you go find Ms. Komatsu and yell at her now I can tell you _exactly_ what's going to happen when you're done," he scolded. "You are either going to find yourself witnessing a very large panic attack that _you_ will not know how to stop or she is going to go home with _suicidal thoughts_."

"T-… That sounds like a worst case scenario," Kaiba replied, failing to stop himself from quickly stuttering. "You're over exaggerating."

"Am I, Seto? _Am I_?" the man demanded. "Her parents sent in her medical history, right? It's bound to have proof if you want it. But even then, Seto, I can still say this confidently even though _I _haven't seen her records because I was shy during my time as a student, _and all of those things happened to me_."

The world froze.

Suicidal thoughts…

Cheerful, idiotic Yugi had thought of _suicide _before?

"And at least I had Anzu and Grandpa," Yugi continued without skipping a beat. "At least I had someone supportive not only at home but also at school. Ms. Komatsu had _no one_ in school before she switched to being homeschooled, remember? _You _told _me_ this. Not to mention you also said that you figured Ms. Komatsu tries to be a people-pleaser; are you telling me you're about to make her feel like she failed on her first day back to a traditional school after not being around anyone but her family for _years_? You say yes and I _will _tear apart your Blue-Eyes cards. I. Am NOT. Joking."

Kaiba didn't respond for a very long time. Or, at least, he felt like he didn't. All of Yugi's words tumbled through his brain, stuck on loop for seemingly hours on end.

And then, after what was most likely only a few seconds later…

"You don't know my safe combination," he said.

"89631139."

"God damn it."

"Maybe try not making it obvious."

Kaiba recovered quickly and retorted, "Calling the kettle black, 46986414."

"_God damn it!_"

Still, even with the small victory, Kaiba sighed with ultimate defeat. "Fine, I'll talk," he conceded. "I'll…try. I don't know _how_, but…"

"Talk to her like you talk to Mokuba," the other man suggested, finally calm after his rant. He even seemed a little jovial, judging by his slight chuckle. "Be nice." Kaiba snorted. "Okay, okay, I know that's not happening. But you can be clear and concise. Let her explain the situation, don't be dismissive. Be stern but not harsh. Think you can do all of that?"

Kaiba took a breath. "Yeah, I think I-"

Suddenly, from down the hall, he heard the sound of retching.

Stunned, Kaiba didn't move for a few moments. But once the retching turned to dry heaving, he started a brisk pace towards the noise.

"Seto, what happened?" Yugi asked, reminding the CEO that he had abruptly silenced himself.

"That's what I'm going to find out," Kaiba replied.

Yugi hummed with concern but said nothing else as Kaiba continued his fast-paced walk. The dry heaving thankfully didn't last long, turning into coughing instead. As he approached, the coughing was replaced by deep yet short breathes, interspersed with what sounded like crying. And as Kaiba turned the corner…

"Oh."

"What happened?" Yugi questioned again.

Not knowing where to begin, Kaiba heaved a sigh that had a hint of a growl in it. Of course there would be. _No one_ would want to deal with the scene in front of him.

…But, truthfully…

The sigh was mostly of realization.

Because Isono said Koharu Komatsu was heading for the bathroom.

He never said she would make it there.


	8. It Doesn't Matter If It's Good Enough

**A/N: Please excuse the author, she died for being an idiot because she decided to work at a CVS during a pandemic. Don't worry, someone used Monster Reborn and she now works at a Hampton Inn and Suite and can have the free time (and less stress) to actually write something.**

**Also each chapter title is named after a lyric in a song, and I'll go back and put in an A/N for each with the song and artist. Chapter 8's is from "The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World.**

* * *

Koharu always hated throwing up. The unnatural feeling of food coming back up, the dry heaving and coughing that followed, the scratchiness of her throat afterwards, and the tears that flowed down her face through it all made her feel absolutely disgusting in the end.

But what she hated the most about throwing up were the memories and words that floated around in her head, during and after.

Koharu had never gotten _sick_. Never had the cold or flu, never laid in bed as she was fed liquids with her nose burning and a damp cloth on her forehead. No, all of the times she threw up were the result of her anxiety elevating beyond what her body could handle. Usually this meant a ton of people were there to witness her darting into the bathroom or to the nearest trash can, laughing at her as her stomach released all it had.

Thankfully, this time there didn't seem to be anyone around her, so that was good…

Or it was, until Koharu finally realized she had thrown up in the hallway.

_I didn't even make it to the bathroom! _she cried, mortified. _I- I-I gotta find someone, m-maybe tell them I __**found **__it instead of m-making it. Y-yeah, that's a plan, that's-_

There was a pair of sleek black boots on the other side of the mess she made.

And since most students wore colored boots, and since she was sure most of the teachers did too…

_Please Lord, don't let it be…_

She slowly looked up.

The world shattered.

_M-Mr. Kaiba, I threw up in front of Mr. __**Kaiba**__! _Koharu squeaked. _I'm done for he's gonna throw me off the island for sure my parents are never gonna live this down their reputation will sink never to be recovered because of __**me why of all people was it MR. KAI-**_

Koharu's shoulder was gripped tightly, jolting her out of her impending panic attack, although traces of its beginnings were still prevalent through her violently shaking hands. Then, before she could even think of anything else, she was spun around and found herself facing Kaiba's stern gaze…

Eye level with her.

Wait, what?

"Go into the bathroom, rinse out your mouth, splash some water on your face, and _breathe_, Ms. Komatsu," Kaiba directed… somewhat calmly?

Who _was _this person in front of her right now?

The confusion must have shown on her face, because soon Kaiba grunted and turned his head to the side, focusing more on the phone held up to his ear. "'Be nice', yeah thanks, didn't help much when she's looking at me like I'm a freak. Idiot." Whoever he was talking said something that clearly irritated him enough for him to sport a full on scowl as he shot straight up. "Did it wrong? You were listening the whole time, how the hell did I do it wrong?" There was another pause, and then Kaiba clicked his tongue in annoyance. "You're absolutely infuriating."

Obviously, Koharu had no idea what was being exchanged between the two. Heck, she didn't even know what Kaiba was _referring_ to. But at least one thing was clear:

Kaiba received advice on how to make her calm down and feel safe.

Kaiba… _listened to someone_.

_Kaiba_ did that.

"U-um, I'm sorry," Koharu muttered, causing Kaiba to glance at her. "I- I-I'm just…disoriented. I'll, um… I'll do as you say. Excuse me." She bowed deeply and then headed into the bathroom.

Her post-retching routine seemed to have never left her mind even after almost four years, as Koharu found she did everything Kaiba told her to do without needing to think about it. The only difference was the sound of one voice instead of a few dozen, and even then, Koharu could barely hear the CEO as he talked on the phone. He had probably moved a little farther down the hallway to avoid the smell, and Koharu couldn't blame him. But it also made her curious about what he was saying, which led her to think of the possibilities and how they were probably going to be talking to each other soon, and her breathing started to pick up in pace.

_No, stop! _Koharu thought, trying to even it out. She looked at herself in the mirror. _God, I'm a mess._ Her eyes were red and blotchy, her complexion was pale, and her hair was completely disheveled. To occupy her mind, she undid her bun and fluffed out her hair, ready to restyle it. _You… You don't know what Mr. Kaiba is going to say. So just…don't wait for the other shoe to drop, like Haruaki always says. Keep breathing in, and out… In, and out… _

As she did her breathing exercises, Koharu took half of her hair and tied it back up into its bun. Then she brushed out the other half with her fingers. Once it was as tangle-free as it could be, Koharu checked the mirror again, finding that her eyes were not as red and color was returning to her face. Her throat still felt a little dry, so after one last deep breath, she turned on the faucet again and drank some water.

A knock came at the door, along with, "Ms. Komatsu, are you finished?"

Koharu quickly gulped down the water that was in her mouth. "Yes, Mr. Kaiba," she replied as she turned off the water. She then took one last paper towel, wiped off her hands and face, and exited into the hallway.

"Good, follow me," Kaiba instructed curtly.

He turned quickly, but Koharu didn't fall right behind him. Instead, she looked to the… mess and shivered. "Um, Mr. Kaiba, what about…that?"

"That's someone else's job now," he answered.

"But… Shouldn't we wait for them?"

Kaiba turned again and gave her a stern glance, causing her to flinch. "I informed them of where this is, so it isn't in our hands anymore, Ms. Komatsu," he stated authoritatively. "Meanwhile, we need to talk, and the more time you waste worrying about this the less time we have to do so."

"Oh… O-okay," Koharu muttered.

"_Good_." He turned once more and began to stride down the hallway. "We'll move our conversation to the nurse's office. I've been…_advised _that's the best course of action."

"Who-" Kaiba let out an annoyed, frustrated growl, so Koharu dropped the question and quickly scurried behind him.

The two made their way down the hallway and up a flight of stairs to the third floor in silence. Koharu watched Kaiba's confident stride with dreaded anticipation, knowing once they sat down, she'd have to explain everything. That would include tattling on Dr. de Medici, and Koharu hated being a tattletale. He had been the driving force behind her anxiety, but he was still her teacher. Authority. If he thought she was misbehaving, he had the right to call her out and treat her the way he-

The nurse's office door slammed open, causing Koharu to be violently ripped out of her spiraling thoughts with a surprised, fearful yelp. Kaiba let out a harsh sigh but motioned Koharu to enter. The student - now stiff as a board - nodded and proceeded inside with shaky steps.

Hearing the two walk in, Ms. Ayukawa made her way from the back of the office, a bag of pea chips in her hand. She stared at Kaiba unamused as she reached into the bag and grabbed a chip. "There are more polite ways to announce your presence, Seto," she pointed out as she bit into half of the chip with a punctuating _crunch_.

"And you should learn how to address your superiors," Kaiba retorted. "Along with not snacking on the job."

Almost as an act of retaliation, Ms. Ayukawa pulled out two more chips and ate all three in one go. Kaiba growled in annoyance while the nurse swallowed and brushed the salt on her jacket. "They're organic pea chips, Seto, I'm providing a healthy example for the students," she said. "But we're not here to discuss if eating while there aren't any students around is a good or bad thing, we're here for Ms. Komatsu, correct?"

Koharu practically jumped out of her skin at her real last name being mentioned and snapped her attention to Kaiba. "You promised-"

"I did no such thing, Ms. Komatsu," Kaiba interrupted bluntly as he narrowed his eyes. Koharu flinched harshly and backed away from the unwavering glare. "In fact, I distinctly remember saying I _wouldn't_ make promises. If you can't accept that- OW!"

"Seto, you will watch how you speak to my patient," Ms. Ayukawa scolded as the brown-haired man rubbed the back of his head. "Now please leave. We're about to get into sensitive subject matter, and I don't need you antagonizing her."

Kaiba turned and began glaring at her instead. "I need to hear what happened," he argued.

"I'll give you a report later, then," Ms, Ayukawa replied. "But I don't need your brand of cynicism in my office while I have an anxiety patient here, so if you could leave without causing a dramatic scene - which I know will be difficult for you since you have an unhealthy appetite for the dramatic but if you could _try_-"

"M-Ms. Ayukawa, please stop," Koharu finally cut in, shaking in her shoes. "I… I-I know yo-you're joking, but… It isn't v-very nice. A-and I also…don't mind…i-if Mr. Kaiba stays. Really, i-it's okay.

The two adults stared at her silently for a moment or two before Kaiba walked over to a nearby chair and sat down in it with his arms and legs crossed. Ms. Ayukawa watched him do so before turning her attention back to Koharu.

"Very well, he may do so, if that's what you want," she stated. Koharu nodded. "And yes, Ms. Komatsu, I do know your real name. It helps me track your health records better. I thought you had been informed of this, but apparently not all of us are great at communicating."

"Mr. Kaiba is a very good communicator," Koharu mumbled.

"Be glad someone believes so, Seto."

"Ms. Ayukawa, _please_," Koharu insisted as she blushed and Kaiba tisked in distaste.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop teasing him. Now, please sit. We have things to discuss." The student nodded sheepishly and sat on the bed while Ms. Ayukawa grabbed her rolling chair. "First things first, how would you like to be addressed?"

Koharu raised her eyebrows in confusion. "What?"

"I want you to feel as comfortable as you can be, dear," Ms. Ayukawa explained. "So, would you like for me to address you as Ms. Sato, or even Maya?"

"U-um, M-Ms. Komatsu is fine," Koharu stammered. "Th-that's my name, after all, a-and Mr. Kaiba-"

"This isn't about what Seto or I want," Ms. Ayukawa stated, "this is about what _you_ want."

Koharu bit her lip and stared at the ground as she contemplated her decision, and also trying not to cry thankful tears. It wasn't as if she had been unable to have choices ever in her life - her family made sure to accommodate her as much as they could if she asked - but at school, in front of officials, it _was _about what they wanted. So to be given an option on something as simple as how the two adults in the room would address her made her feel happy.

But what _did_ she want them to call her? Definitely not by her real name, family or given. The obvious choice was her alias, but something didn't feel right about those names in the moment. She could only guess she felt that way because she didn't want another student to come by and overhear that Koharu was in the nurse's office on the first day. Maybe. Still, that left her stumped trying to think of a name. Though, after a few moments, an old nickname popped into her head. It sounded like a good idea, so Koharu took a deep breath and raised her head again.

"Koko," she decided.

"Koko? Oh…if you don't mind me asking, of course."

"N-no, not at all, Ms. Ayukawa. It is definitely strange, but when I was first learning English back in grade school, I noticed my family and given name start with the same letters when they're romanized. It's…not a nickname that's used all that often anymore. Most of the time my family calls me 'Angel' because I like Fairy-type monster, especially angel monsters, but that didn't seem appropriate."

"Why isn't Koko used often?"

"We have a reason for being here," Kaiba snapped.

Ms. Ayukawa shushed him and he grunted in response. "I suppose we can talk later about all of that. If you ever want to, Koko," the nurse stated. Koharu nodded, liking her choice in address already. It sounded good off Ms. Ayukawa's tongue. "Now, may you tell us what happened this morning?"

Koharu bit her lip again and started fiddling her fingers. "Um… N-no one's gonna g-get in trouble, are they?"

"Depends," Kaiba answered. Ms. Ayukawa back-handed his knee. "Stop that! And I'm not wrong!"

"Maybe, but you keep those things to yourself," she scolded. "Koko may have allowed you to stay, but _I_ say you are forbidden from talking unless absolutely necessary." He grunted. "Koko, it's okay, we're only here to understand why you are upset, and that's all. Don't worry about anyone else, okay?"

"Al… Alright."

After a few failed starts and Ms. Ayukawa instructing her to close her eyes and count to ten in between each stammering sentence, Koharu finally started to explain. She mentioned the Obelisk girl Hikari - who she didn't name - Dr. de Medici calling her out for sitting with the Obelisks, Judai not being able to follow the lesson, her being called out for trading notes in class…

Koharu stopped as she tried deep breathing again, clenching the hem of her skirt. "I… I'm sorry," she muttered.

"What are you sorry for?" Ms. Ayukawa asked.

"I… I shouldn't be doing this, I feel like I'm tattling on a teacher for doing their job. Dr. de Medici had class to run and I was… I-I was being disruptive I shouldn't be treated so nicely and… and…"

"Koko dear, it's okay," the nurse soothed, and they spent about a minute - this time Koharu was directed to think of a happy place - before Ms. Ayukawa began again. "Telling your side of the story isn't tattling, and from what I'm understanding so far, nothing was truly your fault. Cronos is a very loud man who usually says more than he means, but he can go too far. He has before. It's something he needs to work on, but Cronos can only be instructed what to work on if Seto and I know what 'it' is."

Despite the soft, reassuring words, Koharu shook her head. "Dr. de Medici is an authority figure!" she reinforced.

"And authority figures are human," Ms. Ayukawa replied calmly. "Adults have just as much to learn as everyone else, Koko. So please, I need you to keep going."

Koharu nodded shakily. "O-okay… Okay…" She took a deep breath. "Um, after I got called out about sharing notes, class started up again, and for a while everything was…_fine_, I guess. But then Judai started to nod off, and I tried to keep him awake, but he told me not to worry. So I tried to focus on class, and then he, uh…" Koharu looked at Kaiba's stern gaze and audibly gulped but kept going. "H-he fell asleep, s-so I tried to wake him up, b-because it wouldn't be f-fair to him, right? But when he did, he uh… W-well, he yawned… Really loudly. And Dr. de Medici got _really _m-mad about it and yelled at me and Judai and Ren and then c-called us… H-he called u-us… _l-lost causes_."

The room was uncomfortably quiet for a few hours (moments), and Koharu ended up looking down at her flats, clenching and unclenching her hands as she waited for one of the adults to answer. "Is this a regular occurrence?" Kaiba finally asked, which was definitely not what Koharu was expecting.

"To the Slifers, yes," Ms. Ayukawa replied, turning to him. "Ras every now and then, but his main targets are Slifers. Cronos _had _calmed down last year, but I have a feeling the Society of Light incident has made him heavily biased for Obelisks again, since they were the main targets and they're his students. However," she swiveled her chair back towards Koharu, "that still doesn't give him the right to single you out, Koko, nor does it give him the right to call you a lost cause. I'm sorry he upset you, Koko."

"It… It wasn't just Dr. de Medici," Koharu stated. "See, there was this kid I knew throughout all of grade school and my first month of middle school. His name was Raizo, and he…he was very awful to me. He'd duel me…a lot, even though I never wanted to, because I was an easy win. But he also liked to…l-liked to beat me up, a-and the first time he d-did, it was in first grade, a-after I lost. H… H-he said I wa-was a loser and h-he was gr-grinning and s-scary, a-and, and, h-h-he called m-me a l-l-lost cause be-before he…_kicked _me, a-and I… I threw up i-in _front_ of him. A-and every time s-someone calls me th-that I think o-of day and I th-throw up all over again and I _did that in front of Mr. Kaiba I-_"

"Koko, dear, breath for me," Ms. Ayukawa interrupted, standing up so she was at Koharu's eye level. The purple-haired girl tried her best, but her chest was beginning to hurt like a thousand stones dropped on it at once, and they kept piling and piling, and she felt like it just kept squeezing tighter and tighter. "Remember your happy place, dear. Do you want to tell me what it is?"

It was hard, given that it felt like her throat was constricting, but eventually she blurted out, "C-Costa Rica! Th-the hot springs there, I-I l-l-_liked_ them a lot. A-and this o-one spot on the couch, at home… A-at one o'clock i-in the afternoon the s-sun hits it just r-right and makes it w-warm. And…on the tennis field with…with Judai."

Ms. Ayukawa smiled softly. "Did you enjoy that afternoon?" she asked.

Koharu nodded slowly. "Y-…Yeah, I did. I… I'm glad Judai was hanging out with me, watching me play. He's really nice."

"He is a very friendly, very kind young man," the nurse agreed. "Even if he has a lot to learn himself. But I'm happy you found a friend here at Duel Academy, Koko." Koharu nodded again.

Kaiba stood up abruptly, spooking Koharu a bit but with Ms. Ayukawa by her side it wasn't all that bad. "Cronos will not be fired," he announced. "However, he _will_ hear what his actions caused today. I won't tell him about your past, that isn't relevant to him. And by the way," he looked Koharu dead in the eye, "for your core classes, you can sit wherever." With a swoosh of his trenchcoat he quickly strode out of the room.

The two ladies watched him go, and when the door closed behind him Koharu let out a long, deep sigh. "Mr. Kaiba is very intimidating in person," she noted.

Ms. Ayukawa laughed. "Yes, I suppose, but he's also a complete child," she replied.

"Ms. Ayukawa, you can't say that, he's your boss!" Koharu squeaked.

She brushed off the purple-haired girl's protest with a playful smile. Then, after a couple moments, it softened. "How are you doing, Koko?"

Koharu self-evaluated before deciding, "I'm exhausted."

"I'm not surprised, it certainly has been an eventful morning," Ms. Ayukawa noted. "Would you like to lie down and rest?"

"I can lie down," Koharu said as she did just that, "but, um, I feel like resting isn't something that's going to…happen. My mind is probably going to race too much."

"We can always talk about other things, then," the nurse suggested, sitting back down in her chair. "I'd love to get to know you better, Koko. Unless there's something else you would like to talk about."

"No, no, that sounds like a good idea," Koharu replied. "I… I like talking about my hobbies…if you're interested."

"Of course I am, dear," Ms. Ayukawa stated with a wide smile. Koharu smiled back, too.

She started with the hobby Ms. Ayukawa already knew, tennis, and explained it had come about because her parents had been recommended to have Koharu try some sort of physical activity to curb her anxiety. They had tried a few other sports, and one day her family went down to the tennis court not far from their high rise. A long-time business partner of her mother's happened to be there and happily instructed Koharu how to play. With every other activity, when Koharu hadn't done well on her first try, she decided she never wanted to do it again. But for some reason, even though the same thing happened with the tennis game, something had just clicked about it, and Koharu kept coming back until her family was too intimidated by her skills to even do a rally with her.

"So I just played against people who were at the court," Koharu explained. "Haruaki was always there, watching to make sure I didn't get hurt in any way. He's protective of me."

"He sounds like a great older brother," Ms. Ayukawa noted.

Koharu nodded, then sighed. "Sometimes, though, I can't stand him," she admitted. "He can be a bit overbearing, and he _never_ stops talking about western culture. Or, at least, it feels like it. He even moved to New York to work in the theater business there!"

"But aren't you happy he's chasing his dreams?" the nurse asked.

"I mean, yeah, of course! And I don't _dislike_ western culture. I just wish he didn't bring it up _every time he called me_." Ms. Ayukawa laughed.

Koharu then moved on to the hobby that surprised everyone: Poker. As predicted, Ms. Ayukawa was shocked, but instead of saying something along the lines of "ooookay" and moving on, the nurse was interested as to why Koharu liked it. She told her that she had witnessed Haruaki and her dad playing it one night with some family friends and was curious enough to sit down and watch them play. She, like her mother, never liked the gambling part in Poker, but Koharu did enjoy having to outsmart your opponent and thinking two steps ahead.

"And Dad notes that I have a good Poker face because I'm either stoic and contemplating or just always nervous," Koharu ended with a chuckle.

Ms. Ayukawa laughed again along with her. "What about art?" she inquired. "Midori told me you captivated all of Slifer with it over the weekend."

Koharu blushed but smiled proudly. "Yeah, the boys loved it all," she said. "I was honestly surprised. Most people… Well, most people are off put by my use of Duel Monsters for human clothing designs…" She sighed through her nose. "My family's clothing company… It's been with us for generations. And since Haruaki is pursuing theater design, it's my company to take, I guess. But I… I don't want to be the CEO or owner or anything like that, you know? I just…wanna be on the floor, making the designs and clothing and getting to interact with the models. That's _my_ dream.

"And I'm sure I'm not the only person like that. I'm sure there were other people at my grade school who don't want to do…'grunt work', so to speak. Maybe… Maybe they were bullied too, but it felt…it felt like it was just me who was getting picked on for it. It was probably because I was already an easy and frequent target, but…" Koharu let out a louder sigh and looked out the window next to her at the clear blue sky. "Is it… Do other people get bullied a lot like I do?"

"Unfortunately yes, Koko," Ms. Ayukawa answered. "People all over the world have preconceived notions of normal, and they bully those who don't live up to it, even if they don't really exist." Then she smiled. "But people all over the world have also fought past those challenges, in a variety of ways, and one of them is a good support network. You're gaining that with Judai and Asuka and all of their friends."

"N- …Not all of them, I think," Koharu muttered, not entirely sure she should out Asuka's friends. "I… W-well I just think…some of them might not like me. N-not that they _h-have_ to, of course! I just-"

"Junko and Momoe were the two who made you feel this way, weren't they?" Ms. Ayukawa deduced.

Koharu jumped. "H-how-"

"The three of them have been inseparable since late grade school, from what I understand," the nurse explained. "Junko and Momoe are some of Asuka's biggest fans, so they sometimes get…overzealous with their idea of what her image should be. Asuka never lets them go too far."

"They didn't," Koharu stated. "They were more so concerned for her rather than antagonistic towards me, and Asuka told them they were being rude regardless. She really wanted me to sit next to her, even when Dr. de Medici was yelling at me for it. I like her a lot."

Ms. Ayukawa beamed. "Yes, she makes me very proud to be the female Obelisk headmaster," she said.

"Why do you do so many jobs here?" Koharu asked. "Doesn't it wear you down?"

"Sometimes," Ms. Ayukawa admitted. "But nothing perks me up more than helping someone overcome their troubles. As a nurse, I can do that for everyone whenever I'm needed. As the Obelisk headmaster, I can help the girls with more personal issues in close quarters. That includes you, Koko. You may not be in the Obelisk dorms, but if you need me, do not hesitate to call me." Then she giggled. "Just make sure to give Midori some love, too. She's your headmaster, and much closer to you than I am."

"Does… Does Ms. Hibiki know my real name, too?"

The nurse nodded. "And Chancellor Samejima as well. It's just for records, Koko, no one besides the three of us and Seto."

"I understand," the student responded. "Thank you for telling me."

"Yes, well, it shouldn't have been my job to do a child's job."

"_Ms. Ayukawa, __**please!**_" The nurse just laughed.

Then, the bell rang, and Koharu waited a few seconds as she stared at the ceiling in silence before slowly sitting up. Ms. Ayukawa stood up as well, but she convinced Koharu to relax for a little bit longer. "I'll get you water, and I want to see you drink at least half of the bottle before you leave my office," she explained as she walked to the back where the refrigerator was. "I don't want you to fuss about being late to your next class; I'll write a note for you, so take as long as you need."

"Okay, I'll-" Suddenly, it hit her that she didn't have her bag, and she jumped off the bed. "M-my bag! I left it in class! I have to go get it!"

"Before you do, Koko, I want you to drink half of this," Ms. Ayukawa restated, showing Koharu the seventeen ounce bottle. "Your bag is important, don't get me wrong, but I want to see you hydrated, and I also want you to relax." The nurse handed Koharu the water, which she took and slightly reluctantly sat back on the bed. "I'll make sure your bag is still in class waiting for you. Just let me call Cronos-"

The door flung wide open, and Koharu jumped with a squeak. She looked at the water bottle in her hand and sighed with relief when she noticed it hadn't been opened yet. "I… I m-made…it," a familiar voice panted.

Koharu snapped her head up to find Judai in the doorway with his backpack on one shoulder and her own bag over the other. "Judai, you- How did you know I was here?" she asked without thinking.

But Judai didn't seem all that concerned with her rude question, instead taking deep breaths to refill his lungs before explaining, "This guy told me you were here, so I ran as fast as I could so I could give you your bag."

Koharu blinked, not paying attention to the latter half of his sentence. She was trying to figure out who "this guy" was. "Do… Do you mean Mr. Kaiba?" she questioned.

"No, he had short black hair and sunglasses." Judai tilted his head up to the ceiling with a contemplative gaze. "You know, I never get why people wear sunglasses indoors." Koharu sighed.

"I believe that would be Insono," Ms. Ayukawa brought up. "From what I understand, Seto has set up a few watchdogs here and there for some amount of time." She shrugged. "I thought it was pretty overkill at first, but if they can be an outside unbiased party in situations like this, maybe having some around for a while might not be a bad thing."

"It shouldn't have happened at all," Judai stated boldly. He stared unwaveringly right into Koharu's eyes, as if he was trying to tell her not to change his mind. "I shouldn't have yawned so loudly, and I shouldn't have fallen asleep in the first place. I'm really sorry, Maya."

Despite the confidence in his own words, Koharu was about to deny that he had done anything wrong. But Ms. Ayukawa put a hand on her shoulder, and Koharu looked at the nurse and her smile. Then, Ms. Ayukawa looked to Judai. "Thank you for apologizing, Judai," she said. "Now the next step is to prevent this from happening again, correct?"

"Yeah," Judai agreed with a nod. He chuckled nervously and rubbed his hair. "Guess that means I actually gotta wake up early, huh?"

"And that you shouldn't be up until 2 a.m. looking at your cards, mister," Ms. Ayukawa scolded, though there was a teasing air in her voice. Judai laughed.

"Just… Just don't…feel like you're being pressured to do this, Judai," Koharu piped up. "I-I mean, good sleep is good! But I don't want to…force you to do anything you don't want to do."

Judai simply shrugged with a grin. "Eh, well, I don't really want to get scolded by Ms. Midori or my parents again, so I don't see a problem," he replied. Koharu smiled.

"Alright, Maya, drink half the water bottle and you'll be free to go, if you'd like," Ms. Ayukawa instructed.

"I… I think I can go to class," Koharu stated. "I just gotta…give it another shot."

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Judai encouraged.

Ms. Ayukawa beamed and nodded in agreement. "And remember, don't hesitate to come to me for help, Maya," she told her.

"I will." Koharu bowed. "Thank you so much, Ms. Ayukawa."

"My pleasure," the nurse replied with a giggle.

Ms. Ayukawa gave the two tardy notes for class - she teased Judai by telling him he better not take advantage of her kindness - and once Judai gave Koharu her bag they left, with Judai shouting, "Bye Ms. Emi!" as they did.

"Why are you informal, Judai?" Koharu asked. "They're our teachers."

"Well, I just like everyone knowing I'm friendly, I guess," he laughed. "It just feels more right to me. Besides," his smile became a flat line, "I'd rather use people's family name when I want them to know I don't like them. People like de Medici."

Koharu looked down at her shoes. "I don't want you to dislike him because of me," she told him quietly.

"It's not just because of you; honestly, you just were an addition to the list," Judai admitted. "It's that he sometimes he says that we matter, but he doesn't follow up on his words. Not often enough, anyway. That's why we just ignore him, but I should have…" His pause made Koharu look back at him, and she noticed he now had an apologetic look on his face. "I should have known ignoring him wouldn't be that easy for you; you said so on Thursday, in a way. I know you think I shouldn't have to apologize, but I think I need to, so I will. I'm sorry. I really am. And I want to be better for you so stuff like this doesn't keep happening."

Koharu bit her tongue as she tried to force herself not to deny any wrongdoing, remembering when Ms. Ayukawa had stopped her earlier. Instead she nodded and said, "I… I really appreciate that, Judai. And I… I want to be better, too, so you don't have to worry about me."

Judai grinned brightly. "Yeah! We'll work on it together, I promise!" he declared.

And Koharu smiled back.


End file.
